Floods

Yes, the whole Oxford area is beset by floods. We live just south of Oxford and, while things have improved, over the weekend driving anywhere was like being in a maze

The traffic was backed up along the inside lane of the M4 and some drivers were causing a problem by driving up the middle lane, stopping then trying to force their way into the queue.
It could have caused nasty accidents.

Rory Stewart was our M.P. for a while and was very effective. Especially when our county was badly hit by floods about 6 years ago. He got a very important bridge rebuilt in a very short time and others.
We have got another MP that only the farmers seem to know. Some bridges are still impassable 6 years on, he's certainly not nearly as motivated or focused as Rory was.

I listened to a TRIP’s a while back in which Rory Stewart, newly appointed to the environment department, told Lis Truss, his boss at the time, of all the plans he had regarding flooding. How many people he needed to meet etc. It was going to take a long time and was far reaching. From memory (I stand corrected if I’ve got this wrong as I can’t find the podcast to relisten to) I think she told him he’d got two days and no money.

Yes, the whole Oxford area is beset by floods. We live just south of Oxford and, while things have improved, over the weekend driving anywhere was like being in a maze,

We went to visit a friend, and the first thing w had to deal with was the flood in our road and that being partially shut, so we had to turn left rather than right, we drove to the next village and turned right there. After a mile that too was shut, but after the turn we wanted, except that that road too was closed a mile further on, and we had to go left again, which took us past our destination to a village just beyond it. From there we managed to find a road that got us to the town we wanted to visit, but well past our destination, so we had to go back on our tracks in the town to finally reach my friend. We travelled at least twice as far as we would normally.

I live in a town on the banks of the river Severn. I've lived here for over 60 years and for the first 6 years lived close to the river and our home was flooded regularly, at least once, every year, sometime between November and March

Riverside cottages on the banks of the Wye were built of stone, with stone floors. Someone I knew said they did get flooded but moved furniture and could wash through the downstairs more easily because of the stone floors and walls.

I saw a cattle farmer being interviewed on the local news; the farm is on the banks of the Severn and much of it was flooded. She said the farm was part of the flood plain and they move the cattle to higher ground when heavy rain threatens floods. One thing she mentioned is that the Severn is no longer dredged. When ships went up as far as Gloucester carrying goods, the Severn was regularly dredged which did help to prevent flooding, now silt washes down the Severn and Sharpness Canal and builds up.

We drove past the Oxford turning on the M4 this morning and the traffic from all directions entering Oxford seemed to be at a standstill; traffic news mentioned flooding and closed bridges as one cause of the chaos.

The Riverside cottages and houses, I was referring to I my town were all built within the 16th to early 19th centuries. Most of the larger properties being constructed in the 18th century.
They started out either as warehouses or posh merchants houses which later became more "down market" homes.

Few people built on the flood plain until the mid-late 19th century. Then with agricultural workers flooding (sorry) into the towns to work in the bi. The cheapest land being the flood plaing factories being out up everywhere lots of cheap cottages were thrown up on the cheapest land - the flood plain

This is precisely what happened in three towns I know well: Reading, Oxford and York and applies ot many others.

I live in a town on the banks of the river Severn. I've lived here for over 60 years and for the first 6 years lived close to the river and our home was flooded regularly, at least once, every year, sometime between November and March.

Severity of flooding varied. I think in the 6 years we were affected directly, there were 3 major floods, the first being 6 weeks after we first moved in. We did, however, experience around 10 floods during our time there.
I later moved further away from the river but still in the same town. I think, as others have said, there are many factors involved when considering the current situation.
Climate change, lack of investment, building on flood plains, deforestation etc.
One or two other things come to my mind too.
Back in the 1960s, it was largely poorer people who lived in the cottages on the banks of the river. Not many had electrical appliances, fitted carpets or expensive furniture. Most of the homes had been lived in by generations of the same family so they were very well organised and knew what to expect and what to do when flooding happened.
There was no social media and rolling news to fuel a kind of mass hysteria when the river did what it had done for centuries. The local TV news paid a visit, filmed a bit and did some interviews and that was it.

We went through a period in the late 80s and early 90s when the river hardly flooded at all then, it reverted to its natural behaviour with some spectacular flooding in the the early 2000s. This precipitated visits from royalty and politicians and worldwide coverage.
I doesn't seem to have stopped since. Every year, when the river floods, the same thing happens, only now we get demands that "they" should do something about it.
Fortunately, we now have the technology to build effective flood defences to protect homes and businesses. Something that wasn't available 30 years ago.

Severe flooding mostly caused by heavy rainfall, does appear to be on the increase. Maybe it is climate change, maybe other factors, combined with it. Maybe it will get worse, maybe it wont I don't know. I don't know how far back records go either. The furthest back in time I could get was a record of a flood in Worcester in the 1640s.
Apparently, it was the worst flood since the time of Noah.
Now there's a thought!

Our last big flood was in 2007 we had 6 inches of rain in 2 days, last week we had 2 inches locally, so although there was flooding it was minor for us, sympathy for those that had major problems.
Over the last 10 yrs in this area it has been drier than in the past with less flood periods, the river flooding meadows once or twice each year. Last week the recreation ground and car parks close to the river flooded for a few days, several blocked drains caused roads to be closed, little serious damage.

Woke to our 5th day with water coursing downthe road, parts of the road are clear, but thewater is stil flowing fast, so the water is still draining from saturated fields. The Berkshire Downs rise directly behind us. There is an awful lot of water in them thar hills!

We have a stream flowing through our village which eventually runs into the athames, but due to good management by a volunteer group of villagers it hasn’t flooded this time.
However, the fields just 100 yards away from our house are under many inches of water, we have lived here for 24 years and they haven’t flooded before, no new building in the village and we are uphill from the stream, there are no drains in the fields anyway so it isn’t linked to clogged gullies

It seems obvious that it’s due to heavy rainfall which is due to climate change.

Our road is is still covered by flood water which is still fast flowing. This is the 4th day. It is going down slowly, but very slowly. In our road, no houses are affected and it is shallow enough to drive through, but when the road has flooded before, it has cleared in just over 24 hours.

It certainly does seem that flooding is becoming more and more extensive, there is definitely something afoot, I think. I suspect it’s a combination of factors - unwise development, lack of maintenance and climate change, for a start.

Talking to older people, you’ll often hear interesting information. When I was a child a new development was built which entailed filling in a pond. The ‘old boys’ were all teethsucking and predicting gloom, which was dismissed by both council and developers. Guess what? Come the winters, there was repeated flooding in the area because the pond had been where excess water had drained into.

Your mention of the Weald, Whitewavemark also reminds me that a few years ago my husband spoke to the current owners of the beautiful ancient house in the Weald where he was born. They told him they had no floorboards at the moment because the house had been flooded.

He was astounded because there’d never been any problems like that when his family lived there. He asked if maybe the garden pond had overflowed and they replied ‘What pond?’ Clearly at some point it had been filled in, with disastrous consequences.

Just seen this -to put the cuts by Sunak into perspective

“In 2021 Sunak cut the money given to the Environment Agency to maintain existing flood protection schemes

Reduced it by £34m to £201m

And then to £194m the following year

For context:

Amount spent on Rwanda plan to date:

£290m.”

You speak much sense M0nica - what you describe sounds very familiar
We (by which I mean the relevant agencies) do not seem to be learning from experience or facing the current challenges with anything like common sense.

I’m lucky enough to live on the South Downs, but I can look out at the Weald and see vast swathes of flooded land. It is obvious that so much is flood plain, and where these have been built on (always against EA advise) houses are in much more danger of being flooded.

BlueBelle

It is climate change BUT I don’t know about you but here the council do not look after the drainage system as they should the pipes are old Victorian ones and the road not only have numerous pot holes but often weeds growing out of the drains I do think they have to be much more in control of this and sewerage levels as well which is often released into our sea and rivers
Two fold

Yes - it all boils down to lack of investment into our infrastructure.

Our village is the same, M0nica. What was a small village 30 years ago now has large housing estates all around covering the fields that used to absorb the water. The roads all have ditches to catch run off water but they are now completely full and the roads are flooding whenever there is rain for more than a couple of days. It costs the Council a lot of money to keep all the ditches clear and the drains only get cleared every few years.

It's not just that there is more rain in our case, but there are fewer places for it to drain off.

It is climate change BUT I don’t know about you but here the council do not look after the drainage system as they should the pipes are old Victorian ones and the road not only have numerous pot holes but often weeds growing out of the drains I do think they have to be much more in control of this and sewerage levels as well which is often released into our sea and rivers
Two fold

Of course suffice it to say that many of us on GN won’t be alive to see it, but I am constantly amazed at what we are experiencing - not expecting such rapid change.

Expect more in the years to come.

This year has been one of the hottest on record, and for every 1c increase rise in temperature the clouds can hold something like 6-8% more moisture, which because of the U.K. topography falls as the clouds reach land from the Atlantic.

With regard to flood mitigation. Unfortunately, there have been a number of problems. First the EA is underfunded year on year, but where funding has been given for flood mitigation, the yearly maintenance is often not funded by the government.

Not only is excessive rain fall an ongoing threat, one if the most damaging changes will be the rise in sea levels. This will see vast swathes of the U.K. - particularly in the south of England swept away, as there are no plans to prevent this happening.