YP Letters: Community comes together in response to the flooding

HEARTFELT gratitude and congratulations are due to Calderdale Council, the emergency services and volunteers following the recent floods; working together they took a practical standpoint and got on with the job.

It was gratifying to see our Labour council leader and our Conservative MP on television together discussing what could be done to prevent further problems now and in the future.

In Brighouse obvious damage was sustained in the location of Sugden’s Mill, but the owners soon had the area cleared up with the ROKT Climbing Gym housed in Brighouse’s iconic towers reopened within 24 hours.

I take this opportunity to thank the owners of the Sugden’s site for breathing new life into that part of Brighouse with various businesses including the much improved Millers Bar and gardens.

An entrepreneurial view has been taken attracting more visitors and customers to Brighouse.

From: Al Brown, Trappers Drive, Woodvale, Australia.

RE those devastating floods in Yorkshire and other areas. A message to the Prime Minister. Dropping a few sandbags here and there is not the solution. Get the dredgers working and make a proper job of it. And if your masters in Brussels object, tell them to go to hell!

I dealt with a flooded area in 1977 by making the drainage channel wider and deeper. It’s never been a problem, 38 years on.

From: Peter Bye, Park Crescent, Addingham.

RE the letter from AW Clarke on greedy developers and flooding (The Yorkshire Post, January 12). The answer to this problem is quite simple. Banks, building societies and other lending institutions should refuse to lend money for mortgages for new houses built on flood plains.

It would also assist if insurers refused to insure them. Once a few developers have lost money in holding worthless land, the problem will soon disappear.

From: Hugh Rogers, Messingham Road, Ashby.

I HAVE seen many gratings clogged with detritus of all kinds, much of it thrown there by thoughtless citizens. Concrete-laid gardens and patios which prevent rain soaking away, should be banned and householders made to revert to more absorbent soil and gravel driveways.