Neglect of Yorkshire rivers and waterways catastrophic – Yorkshire Post Letters

I NOTE that North Yorkshire County Council officers say it is becoming critically important that those people with drainage responsibilities were aware of them.

Most farmers are fully aware of their responsibilities for 
land drainage. However, in recent times, many houses 
have been built and their 
surface water has been drained into agricultural ditches, 
making maintenance and liability a much more complex issue.

Taking this statement to its logical conclusion, the Government, Defra, English Nature, the Environment Agency and the multitude of environmental lobbyists should be addressing this devastating neglect of our rivers and waterways.

Rather than spending billions of pounds on Boris Johnson’s glory project HS2, let us spend a small proportion of that money sorting out the catastrophic, calculated neglect of our waterways commencing at the outfall, which of course is the sea.

Your regular contributor John R Goodman, a retired drainage officer, has championed this cause and has, I believe, suggested a tidal barrage across the Humber Estuary. Work could then proceed inland and then the water courses could accommodate the extra water created by modern developments.

The effect of improving the waterways would see a huge reduction in the destruction by flooding of domestic and commercial properties which, in itself, has an enormous cost to the nation. Additionally it would improve the structure, condition and productivity of our farmland. Huge areas of waterlogged and drowned crops contribute nothing to the national economy.

These anerobic areas are detrimental to reducing our carbon emissions. Defra’s new consultation document, Farming is Changing, gives scant mention of food production and places emphasis on environmental protection. This in itself is an excellent aspiration. However, 
in order to be able to spend money on such projects, farms have to be fundamentally profitable.

In conclusion, whilst I don’t know the particular circumstance of the Great Ayton area, this farmer gets no satisfaction from sitting on his tractor witnessing dying crops which have been flooded, especially as I know that with the right amount of willingness and enthusiasm, the Government of the day could eliminate the majority of the flooding problem in the lowlands of Yorkshire.

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