Flooding proves the need for lock keepers to return to manage our swollen rivers

IN all the discussions on flooding (The Yorkshire Post, March 7), there are considerations I have not seen raised.

The days of barges carrying aggregates, coal and even newsprint rolls on rivers and canals have long gone.

Heavy barge traffic fed major coal burning power stations and industry of the townships and cities across the country 40-50 miles inland with materials.

The rivers and canals were then managed by employees of the Waterways Boards.

The lock keepers are long gone and now many lock gates are electrically operated.

It was the lock keepers who constantly read and managed the rivers and canals, flushing the navigational channels to ensure unheeded passage, while regulating the flow of water in times of flood and drought.

Propellers of vessels ploughed through and churned up the sediment into suspension, carrying it into the main rivers such as the Ouse and Trent, requiring the Humber navigation charts to be updated every two weeks to inform navigators of the constant changes in the direction of the channels, often both narrow and shallow. A resurgence of river traffic, which would take traffic off the roads, and re-introduction of lock keepers, could reduce, but not remove, the need for dredging.

From: Henry Cobden, Ilkley.

WHEN is the Environment Agency going to be made more accountable for its decisions over flooding? I watched the ITV documentary about its Leeds control room – but wondered who scrutinises the decisions over which areas get funding.

From: Phil Lambley, Hinckley, Leicestershire.

ON how to prevent houses flooding: treat the house like 
a boat by blocking off any holes.

1. Seal door frames, including key holes and letter box.

2. Block off toilet pan, bathroom drain and kitchen sink/ dishwasher/ washing machine drain pipe (by fitting valve in main drain pipe).

3. Seal air vents in outer walls to stop water entering cavity walls.

4. Like we did in WW2, make wooden frames, covered in lino, to fit over downstairs windows.

5. Run a diesel driven small air compressor upstairs, with a pipe running downstairs.

6. Put a ladder outside up to a bedroom window.

Don’t go down memory lane

From: Margaret Smith, Westwood Road, Scarborough.

ON a recent visit to a new hairdresser, my regular one having retired, I found myself standing in a shop where, as a child, I bought my sweets with pennies given to me by my late grandmother.

Next to the shop is a passage that leads down to the back of what was once my grandmother’s house and back gate.

With mixed feelings and against advice, I decided to take a trip down memory lane for old time’s sake.

I soon learned the reason for being advised not to go. I can’t begin to put into words my feelings at the sight of the rubbish that filled the length of the passage, including the piles of dog mess.

My thoughts were of the decent, hard working people who had lived there in my grandmother’s day, they didn’t have the luxury of today’s labour saving white goods and gadgets. What they did have was pride and respect. Pride in their homes and respect for others.

There can be no excuse for throwing rubbish over a wall with the attitude of ‘out of sight, out of mind’.

This is not an isolated problem. It seems to be a way of life and not one to be ignored, whatever the cost.

I won’t be going down the passage again for a nostalgic look over my grandmother’s gate, but I will always have fond 
memories of her hanging out whiter than white sheets, washed by hand in her pristine whitewashed yard and sweeping the passage that is now being used as a tip ‘for that was her way of life’.

Dearth of arts on the BBC

From: J Hutchinson, Kirbymoorside, York.

I AGREE wholeheartedly with Tony Palmer (The Yorkshire 
Post, March 7) regarding the dearth of music and arts on the BBC.

The dumbing down of all stations – particularly Radio Four – has got to the stage where there is more or less a complete lack of good new music programmes, in-depth art analysis, documentaries or programmes primarily 
to entertain as well as inform.

The BBC is not doing our nation any favours by depriving us of the sort of programmes that grew our knowledge and outlook on life for which it
used to be renowned and 
proud.

I read that the televising of the Proms was even going to be put out for tender, I hope this was fake news.

To sidey or to side the table

From: Mary Alexander, Knab Road, Sheffield.

FOLLOWING the letter from Christine McDade (The Yorkshire Post, March 5), may I add that I grew up in Leeds hearing and using the expression ‘to side the table’.

My husband, being a Sheffielder, used the expression ‘to sidey’.