The floods today in....

[daveyboi]

After the continual news coverage of the flooding I notice there is very little comment on the effects on livestock, wildlife and crops.

I out of interest did a search on A4A on floods and looking at the results it seems this is really a quite normal event that has cropped up quite often over the years.

Has anyone on here been affected this time around?

Although we have escaped the worst so far in the south here I see my fruit trees are standing in very saturated ground again so I hope they do not drown.

[daveyboi]

[plotstoeat]

This article from The Guardian is interesting https://t.co/vOixMLSMkl

[caroline7758]

Interesting indeed- we've just lost our only bridge here in Tadcaster and there's a lot of farmland and grouse around here!

[daveyboi]

Interesting indeed- we've just lost our only bridge here in Tadcaster and there's a lot of farmland and grouse around here!

Long time since I have been in that area but looking at Google maps it seems that the bypass does not allow you to just go from one side to the other without going miles to turn around.

Interesting article although the environment agency has been employing some of the methods described in the article they can not really win like for example when the Somerset levels flooded people demanded dredging again took place.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26335155 is an example where the farmers state their case against proposals to hold back water from towns

[galina]

Interesting indeed- we've just lost our only bridge here in Tadcaster and there's a lot of farmland and grouse around here!

Stay safe Caroline - so sorry you are having floods where you live.  The minister has promised that the bridge would be rebuilt pronto - hope she meant it! 

[pumkinlover]

The guardian article is very interesting and to me it appears relevant to the high  moors in the Pennine  and similar areas.
We are close to the Eastern Moors which are now managed by RSPB and NT here the opposite it happening and the moors are being returned to wet land. http://www.easternmoors.org.uk/what-we-do/leash-fen-restoration.html

[caroline7758]

Fortunately we live up a hill, so not affected, except that we can't get across the bridge to Sainswbury's, but they are closed anyway due to flooding. There's a lot of scepticism in the town about the minister's "promises".

We went to volunteer with the clean-up but they had so many volunteers we weren't needed. They've had a lot of help from Team Rubicon, who I'd never heard of before but are obviously a brilliant orgnisation:

http://www.teamrubiconuk.org/component/k2/item/36-operation-calcaria-tadcaster-yorkshire

The medical centre was badly damaged but is up and running again thanks to them and others.

[daveyboi]

Sounds like a brilliant organisation Caroline.

Glad you are okay and will be interested to see what they do about the bridge.

Looking at google earth I was wondering if you are able to walk across the old railway bridge?

[caroline7758]

Looking at google earth I was wondering if you are able to walk across the old railway bridge?
[/quote]

Yes, we can walk over the viaduct but it's not ideal for anyone who's not very mobile as the footpath from the end to the road on the east side is pretty rough.

Interestingly, there was never a railway across the viaduct although that was the plan:

http://transportheritage.com/find-heritage-locations.html?sobi2Task=sobi2Details&sobi2Id=378

[PondDragon]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26335155 is an example where the farmers state their case against proposals to hold back water from towns

Pretty much sums up the NFU really. I don't think I've ever read a statement from them that took a positive view of the enviroment. The irony is that retaining more water on relatively low-value upland land would benefit not just towns but also higher-value lowland farmland. The NFU call for dredging, but have no interest in actually reducing the amount of sediment entering rivers from their own eroding farmland.

[Tee Gee]

I recall away back in the mid sixties when I worked on the motorways one of our tasks was to remove an existing bridge and replace it with a new one.

Obviously this transition was going to have a major effect on local transport so how we overcame it was to have a word with the Army Engineers to see if they would hire us a Bailey bridge.

They were only too willing to help plus they wanted to erect it as a training exercise as in peace time there were never any opportunities to practice this task and this offered the ideal opportunity.

On completion of the new bridge they came and removed it.

Perhaps such an arrangement could be made in Tadcaster, or anywhere else where perhaps bridges have been weakened by the forces of the flood waters.


Could it be that such a solution might go beyond the thinking of government personnel?

Then again Jeremy Corbyn might be looking into A4A for some allotment advice and see this suggestion and do something about it!

I for one will be looking what does happen to relieve this situation.