Dredging is the solution to floods risk - Yorkshire Post letters

From: Anne Goodall, Sutton, Thirsk.
This month's flooding in Wainfleet has led to renewed calls for the dredging of rivers to be resumed.This month's flooding in Wainfleet has led to renewed calls for the dredging of rivers to be resumed.
This month's flooding in Wainfleet has led to renewed calls for the dredging of rivers to be resumed.

OVER recent years, we are reading and hearing more and more frequently of rivers flooding low-lying areas.

The latest fad of planting more trees may be of some small benefit, but it is a fact that rivers are no longer dredged in the way they were up until 30 to 40 years ago.

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Nowadays when we walk along the riverside, it is quite obvious that rivers do not have the depth they once had. We can see a good three or four feet of silt and rubbish reducing the flow, volume or capacity of water in the rivers.

Yes, we all wish to preserve wildlife, but this surely should not take total precedent over the poor people who have had their homes ruined by flood water, businesses ruined, farm animals drowned, crops wasted and much more.

We need to realise that wildlife survived and thrived in the past when rivers were dredged. Now surely the time is right that dredging should be made a priority for river trusts and funding found to start the process again. We should listen to country people and consider their views and experience rather than trite nature programmes made by “escape to the country” townies.

This ought to be a priority for this country now. It is surely more important than the ridiculous amount of taxpayers’ money promised for HS2 which the majority of people have no use for and will never use.

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It would also be of help if the local councils engaged their brains before building houses on flood plains.

Little sign of monitoring

From: Wendy Cross, Beverley.

I NOTE that Coun Mike Stathers of the East Riding Council is given the last word in your report (Tories ‘wreck’ climate motion in region after huge gasfield found, The Yorkshire Post, June 20).

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He wishes to ‘reassure residents’ of West Newton, (and presumably all East Riding areas which may be drilled in future), that all will be safe in the council’s hands regarding possible breaches of licences and planning permissions.

Coun Stathers says the council will ‘closely monitor all activities’ concerning the Rathlin Energy site. He was speaking in a full council meeting.

Only the day before the above speech, I witnessed a particularly unsafe practice when a protester had to dive away from a lorry for their own safety. I was close and judged its speed to be excessive. People are obliged to gather in the road to protest, their legal right. Since the Piper’s Lane closure, there has been no other option.

I see that a lay-by has been damaged, probably by heavy goods vehicles going to and coming from the site, often at a speed which could only be a breach. Country roads were not built for this kind of traffic. There are deep tracks on flattened roadside verges and a road surface scored by wide tyre tracks and marked with substances, seemingly from the lorries; many of the lorries and tankers are huge.

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If Coun Stathers wants a starting point for this close monitoring, he could begin with the danger to the public which the 18-month road closure (increased from 21 days) presents.

Better buses in Korea

From: James H Grayson, Sheffield.

JAYNE Dowle’s article on London buses points up the ridiculous nature of deregulation (The Yorkshire Post, June 20).

I lived and worked in South Korea for 16 years beginning in 1971. Although all bus services were provided by private companies, the Korean government set the fares (single, cheap flat fare within any city), the routes, and the frequency of service.

For the last decade or more, when you board a bus, you swipe your bus card to get on, and swipe it as you get off by the separate exit door. With this arrangement, if you transfer to another bus or the underground within 20 minutes of getting off the bus, it’s counted as the same journey. The only different fares are for express buses which make limited stops. However, the fares for these buses are single, cheap flat fare. Why can’t we do this here?

From: Marilyn Stowe, Harrogate.

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IN all those areas where buses reign supreme and car parking made more expensive, shops have all seen a massive drop in sales. Town centres like Harrogate, which have seen increases in parking, are dying.

Retailers are doing everything they can to make people aware of what is happening. They get no response.

Wetherby, a few miles away which has a great policy of free parking, is thriving. It is a tragedy that shops bars and restaurants are closing down.

The internet is a brute force to be reckoned with. Buses are not the immediate answer. Customers and footfall are. Towns like Harrogate need to fight back by welcoming cars and their customers.

North taxes

From: John Hartley, Harrogate.

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JUST to add to the mix regarding the Northern Powerhouse Strategy, I think it’s also a great opportunity to set our own regional sales tax which favours our industries and agriculture and an incentivised corporation taxation system for innovation and creativity, and the promotion of investment in the area from bodies such as InnovationUK and Horizon202.

Grave rip-off

From: Max Nottingham, St Faith’s Street, Lincoln.

FUNERAL costs are rising fast all over the country – ripping people off at their most vulnerable. It is insensitive – businesses should let their humanity shine through.