Dredging won’t stop Yorkshire’s floods, slowing the flow of water could help

Dredging regularly takes place on canals - but would it lessen the likelihood of rivers flooding?

I WAS somewhat surprised to read comments that dredging was the answer to our flooding problems.

This has pretty much been debunked. In a flood there is simply too much water for any amount of dredging to make enough of a difference.

This is why dredging Yorkshire's rivers might not prevent flooding

Would more dredging lessen the risks of flooding?

Part of the answer lies in slowing water in the upper catchments of rivers. This is achieved through schemes like leaky dams, blocking moorland drainage channels, reducing overgrazing, tree planting and encouraging sphagnam moss which can hold 20 to 30 times their own weight in water.

What’s clear is we cannot just keep building bigger concrete walls. It is not working. It is time for a different approach.

From: Mrs Margaret Herbert, Edenthorpe, Doncaster.

I AM extremely concerned at the very poor way in which our Government is responding to the flooding. People are being flooded out three times, yet we get no official statement as to what actions are to be taken.

This was the scene near Kildwick when the River Aire flooded.

We have details on the cost of HS2. If this flooding continues, there will be no HS2 as the ground will be under water!

I am all for progress but please let us get our priorities right.

We should be looking for engineers with experience of flooding, such as those in Holland.

I have also sent this letter to the Prime Minister for his urgent attention (hopefully).

From: John Riseley, Harcourt Drive, Harrogate.

MARK Barlow (The Yorkshire Post, February 26) complains at the exclusion of properties built in 2009 or later from the Flood Re scheme, under which insurance is cross-subsidised by householders in safer locations or by the taxpayer. This exclusion is essential. Without this it would become a charter for people to continue acting recklessly, secure in the knowledge that others will share the cost of the risks they take on.

From: Henry Cobden, Ilkley.

THE Yorkshire Post is right to press for a high-profile Minister for the Coast and Floods. I have seen TV appearances of Rebecca Pow, the Floods Minister, and she treats it like a game. It is not.

From: Andrew Mercer, Guiseley.

WHEN Jeremy Corbyn quotes Shipley MP Philip Davies at PMQs on the floods, you know Boris Johnson and the Government have got it wrong.