Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To feel that the South West has been abandoned (long and ranty)

537 replies

zeezeek · 05/02/2014 18:44

My family still live in Cornwall and they have been completely battered by the wind and the rain for weeks now. Last night they had to be evacuated from their house. The main train line down to Cornwall (in fact also half of Devon) is completely destroyed and a lot of prime agricultural land in Somerset is under water.

People are losing their livelihoods and they have been lucky that there have been no loss of life. In a region where there is already high unemployment - the impact on the farming, fishing and tourist industries will just make the situation worse. Freight trains can no longer get down past Exeter.

The EA are effectively blaming the poor buggers who are affected by this and seemingly forgetting that people and homes are also affected. The government doesn't give a shit and the Environment minister didn't even bother taking a pair of wellington boots with him on his photo opp visit. Our future King made silly comments about how a disaster beings people together while his waste of space daughter in law spends taxpayers money jetting off to the Caribbean. Comments in sensible, intelligent newspapers are also blaming people for daring to live on a flood plain (which has never flooded to this extent) and by the sea.

I know that I am BU, but tonight - when my parents are still not allowed home and my brother has had his fishing boat sunk - I am feeling very, very pissed off with the media who seems to be making such a big deal out of a 2 day tube strike - there are buses.

Sorry, but needed to vent. Have nothing against Londoners - I lived there for years.

OP posts:
mateysmum · 07/02/2014 17:36

That arse hole Smith,words fail me. Platitudes and bull shit is all he knows. Saying he can't resign because he has important work to do. Work that should have been done years ago. He still won't admit the EA have made mistakes. For imatance they deliberately kept the water level 40cm above norm all summer and winter and when the rains came for weeks they were bleating on about how the Levels weren't worth dredging. Tell that to the people living in red cross centres in Somerset and to the 6 yr old boy i met today telling me where his pony his chickens and dog were and he was in a holiday flat because his home wad flooded. Nothing could have stopped floods with this rain but the extent and duration are entirely the fault of sucessive govs and the EA.

I hope Smith has a sleepless night tonight.

Theodorous · 07/02/2014 18:37

I have nothing useful to add about the EA except when I was a student I had a job servicing vending machines and the EA was my worst place to go. The staff were without exception utterly, utterly vile and even 10 minutes in their staff room used to make me want to pull out my eyelashes. I blame my fear of overpaid functionless namby pambies on them.

Theodorous · 07/02/2014 18:37

That was in the south west

Dapplegrey · 07/02/2014 18:43

I'm surprised people are being unpleasant about Prince Charles. I would have thought that Lord Smith would be a more deserving target for criticism. It's only today he's bothered to actually go down and visit the area and the EA, of which he is the boss, doesn't seem to have handled the crisis very effectually.

HesterShaw · 07/02/2014 18:46

What's he got to do with Prince Charles?

They have both behaved badly.

mummymoo47 · 07/02/2014 18:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

HesterShaw · 07/02/2014 19:18

Ooh, a non flood dilemma.

Honeysweet · 07/02/2014 19:56

A lonely person has arrived.

You can google for ideas for loneliness moo.

Original poster
zeezeek · 07/02/2014 19:58

mummymoo47 - surely you meant to start a separate thread about this? Or are you trying to make a point about how difficult life in London is? In which case, you will be better off leaving this thread now.

Thanks for the interesting stats and further comments on this.

Trying to get down to see the family tomorrow.

OP posts:
OhYouBadBadKitten · 07/02/2014 20:01

I suspect it was an error.

HesterShaw · 07/02/2014 20:02

I think so too.

MrsOakenshield · 07/02/2014 20:05

she posted it in the middle of another thread as well. Bit odd.

Chatelaine123 · 07/02/2014 20:05

Op, YANBU - the infrastructure in the South West is old and decaying. We are a Cinderella region that needs investment and vision. The tain network is poor at the best of times. If you are listening David Cameron, please do something and make your little girl with the Cornish name of Endellion proud of you.

Wordsaremything · 07/02/2014 20:10

I'm so sorry and am appalled by what is (not) happening. My town was flooded in2012 but only for two days and the clear up/ helping those made homeless I really think helped the community survive the trauma. All those weeks is simply unthinkable.

Just a little plea - don't blame the civil servants and local government employees. It's the politicians who must be made to answer for this.

HesterShaw · 07/02/2014 20:10

Cameron doesn't give a SHIT about Cornwall and the SW. He swans down to the Padstein area in the summer and claims to love the area. I would love to dump him in Redruth town centre on a wet November evening.

Chatelaine123 · 07/02/2014 20:17

I want to see the government press for EU money on our behalf.

wetaugust · 07/02/2014 20:37

I want to see the government press for EU money on our behalf.

I want to see the government withhold some of the 50M we pay to the EU each day.

This 'EU money' is actually 'our' money in the first place,

wetaugust · 07/02/2014 20:41

Just a little plea - don't blame the civil servants and local government employees. It's the politicians who must be made to answer for this

Sorry, as a retired CS I have to disagree.

Many CS will gleefully implement any dodgy poltical edicts without making the responsible Minister fully aware of the pitfalls - as long as it suits CS 'policy'. Have seen this in action.

LoveSewingBee · 07/02/2014 20:57

The quickest but possibly expensive way would for the UK government to ask the Dutch government for assistance.

The Dutch have the technology, equipment, trained people in order to help sorting this out. If they can keep the Netherlands dry they can help in these worst hit areas as well, but it won't be cheap.

In the Netherlands we have a special annual tax especially to pay for upkeep of the whole water related infrastructure as water has to be pumped all year round, 24 hours a day, as large parts are below sea level, so yes, it can be done.

In the short term, drafting in big machinery with huge pumping ability which the Dutch use when creating new polders (this was recently done with the huge extension of Rotterdam harbour (reclaiming lots of land from the North Sea)) no doubt would help to dry the flooded areas much quicker than with Environments Agency equipment.

mateysmum · 07/02/2014 21:06

Phew, the Dutch have arrived with the mother of all pumps, really amazing kit.

And please do not be mean to Prince Charles re the flooding. He was very welcome here and from what we gather has rattled cages in Westminster on our behalf.

HesterShaw · 07/02/2014 21:08

Ok, but he could at least get his arse down to his own Duchy.

wetaugust · 07/02/2014 21:13

LoveSewingBee

The said on the TV a few nights ago that the Dutch have been used in the past and they were calling for them to be brought back in now.

If you look at a map of the area there are pumping stations dotted all over the area. The main problem was the failure to dredge which led to silting up and loss of capacity to hold the additional water.

Draining this area will be like creating a new polder. It will take months to drain that water away and there's very little (no) confidence left in the EA.

The really sad thing is that 4M is a tiny drop in the ocean of Govt spending. Yet the whole disaster was caused by the EA saying they couldn't find the money - and blaming central Govt (while spending 30+M on the nature reserves). It's like the EA was playing Russian Roulette with the Somerset Levels in a crazy game with the Govt of 'who blinks first' - the EA saying to the Govt 'Give us 4M or we'll let them flood.'

It reminds me a bit of the Falklands crisis when the MOD suggested scrapping HMS Endurance that patrolled the Falkands, never thinking for one moment that the Govt would agree to such a dopey idea. But the Govt did scarp the ship and the Argentinaians too it as a signal that Britain would not defend the Falkands.

Unintended consequences then - just like the failure to stump up what is probably the same amount as the EA's annual stationary budget Angry

wetaugust · 07/02/2014 21:15

Phew, the Dutch have arrived with the mother of all pumps, really amazing kit.

Great news. Let's hope that yesterday's rainfall for the last for a while. It was non-stop.

HobbitWorrier · 07/02/2014 21:36

I live about 10 miles from the levels and locals are very angry even here. The lady/resident that was on Jeremy Vine on weds i think it was; put it most succinctly. When told that Cameron was about to chair a cobra meeting and is there anything she would like to say to him, she replied..' Why is he still having a bloody meeting? Its been like this since 16th dec and he's still just having a meeting, DO SOMETHING' (or words to that effect).

Funnily enough today it kicked off between the local MP Liddell-Grainger and the head of the EA and suddenly Cameron decides to visit and we hear he's ordered pumps and people and there's money all of a sudden! Too little too late. When Lord Smith last visited a year ago, i believe he promised dredging of the rivers within 6 months. Nothing ever happened. At least he wore wellies this time.

wetaugust · 07/02/2014 21:36

And as another poster says, people on the Isles of Scilly (god knows what's happening over there at the moment, no-one can get there to see) have no regular way of getting to/from the mainland as they just have a fixed wing aircraft that can't fly when it's windy/foggy/stormy etc or when the airfields are wet. At the moment the govt is refusing to come up with any funding to restart the very reliable helicopter service which closed 18 months ago. Who's heard about that?

I follow the news on the Isles of Scilly on a daily basis.

They have had one hell of a time recently. There is footage on Youtube of the sea overflowing the entire length of the quay, ripping up the paved surfaces and knocking a hole in the quay wall.

They have had tons of sand blown off Porthcressa and it's sand-blasted the windows of the new Tourist Information Office. They've also had fallen trees and a whale was washed up on a beach. The harbour is currently closed as they are expecting a very severe storm this weekend. No supply ship until next week. And, as you say, a less than reliable air service.