‘Vital role’ for nature in fight to prevent flooding

The Wildlife Trusts organisation wants more investment in measures such as the restoration of “absorbent” wild habitats like wetlands that can help prevent flash flooding after heavy rainfall.

It says their value is highlighted by the role played by a Doncaster wetland reserve called Potteric Carr in stopping the area’s disastrous flooding of 2007 affecting hundreds more homes.

Potteric Carr had at one stage in the 1960s all but disappeared but today it can store 200,000 cubic metres of floodwater.

Dozens of houses were also saved from flooding in Manor Park, Sheffield, in 2007 by an engineered network of ponds and reedbeds known as a sustainable drainage system.

Yesterday’s call for action came as large parts of the country faced fresh floods misery caused by heavy rain.

More than 1,700 homes and businesses have been flooded in England since the start of the Christmas period.

Paul Wilkinson, head of living landscape at The Wildlife Trusts, said: “The reasons for the recent flooding are complex and it is important that local authorities and government agencies are not forced to rush into knee-jerk solutions, such as inappropriate dredging, which could end up causing more problems downstream.

“It really is unacceptable to have had thousands of people in communities up and down the country devastated by these floods when we know there’s a better way to deal with flooding.

“Nature has a vital role to play in the future. It is time to take a more imaginative approach, one which tackles a whole range of problems head-on.

“Natural solutions such as peatland restoration, improved farmland management and wilder city greenspace will make rural and urban landscapes more absorbent and better able to deal with heavy rainfall as well as drought.”

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has come under fire over flood defence spending after it emerged that figures showing increased funding include money committed by the last government.

David Cameron told the Commons last week that “in this current four-year period, we are spending £2.3bn, compared with £2.1bn in the previous period” on flood defences.

But the current four-year period dates back to 2010/2011 – the last year of spending commitments made under Labour when money for flood management reached a high of £664m, before being reduced from 2011/2012 as part of the coalition’s spending cuts.

Guy Shrubsole, from Friends of the Earth, said: “The Prime Minister has serious questions to answer about his Government’s spin on flood defence spending figures.”

Yesterday, more than 115 flood alerts were in place throughout the country. River levels have been rising steadily in counties including Wiltshire, Hampshire, Dorset and Somerset following days of downpours.

Helen Roberts, a forecaster with the Met Office, said apart from some scattered showers, significant amounts of rain were not expected until Wednesday. She went on: “There is a lot of saturated land and high river levels so any amount of rain is not good for those areas.”

Yorkshire is expected to escape the worst of the weather, although yesterday a flood alert was in force along the North Sea coast between Bridlington and Barmston.