To have no sympathy with Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee for having their house flooded

[ReallyTired]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26184129

I feel more sorry for people in council housing along the river than multi millionaires who can CHOOSE where to live.

If you buy a multi million pound house by the river thames then you should not be surprised if it gets flooded. I don't agree with the idea of dredging the river thames as I feel it would destroy wild life.

I agree with them that planning permission should not be given for properties that are guarenteed to flood. Or if people must build on the flood plain then the houses should be built on stilts so that the occupants stay dry. My parents' house is on the flood plain and it is built two feet off the ground so reduce the chances of getting flooded.

[hickorychicken]

Pd is a lovely wee man

[Clutterbugsmum]

Can we have sympathy for the 17 houses In Hemel Hempstead sink hole.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

It must be very shocking for them.

[Chippednailvarnish]

Poor Hemel has taken a beating over the years - the depot explosion and now this.

[Clutterbugsmum]

Hopefully it's not near where Reallytired live in Hemel Hempstead although I think it is same area that Bouncefield affected.

[JohnnyBarthes]

This sink hole business is terrifying.

[lastnightIwenttoManderley]

Wow...just seen this thread.

I live about 2 miles from PD and DM...

Fortunately, I am up a hill but know others whose houses are devastated. This isn't just about rivers bursting their banks. As some have correctly noted, the ground is utterly saturated and so surface water just can't get into the watercourses fast enough.

Some of these houses have been there for hundreds of years and, although on a flood plain, had been built sensibly with elevated ground floors. Unfortunately, changes in the surrounding areas have had a knock on effect, either through flood management systems that rob Peter to pay Paul (water has to go somewhere) or too much water being sent into the sewers.

I'm also a civil engineer. All new developments now are unlikely to get planning without ensuring their surface water goes into sustainable systems such as in ground takeaways or reed beds, designed to slowly release the water back into the ground below. However, this is reasonably new and for decades we've kept paving over green space and dumping al the water into sewers expecting it to disappear. It's shocking that people can still pave over their gardens without any sort of approval in a lot of areas.

The area may have flooded before but in a different way.

OPs attitude stinks like the raw sewage bubbling up.through the drains. (for the record, we've not had any coordinated assistance).

Cactus poo very much appropriate...

[SeaSickSal]

I don't have a lot of sympathy for them. Have a LOT of sympathy for the alleged hound in the 80s though.

[mateysmum]

OP you say you don't want the river dredged because it will affect the wildlife. How much wildlife do you think dies in floods? A heck of a lot.

The Somerset Levels are designed to be dredged. Not dredging is like not putting oil in your car and then being surprised when it breaks down.

[bordellosboheme]

Wow, have you had a sympathy bypass???

[Piscivorus]

Flooding doesn't just flood houses though. It floods farms and their fields so are cows, sheep, chickens and animals who we rely on less deserving than "wildlife"?

[QOD]

I d feel sorry for them as I read the article about them ages ago about them trying to get it rebuilt on stilts. Who would it have hurt? The environment? What that environment that's now flooded with raw sewage?

[quirrelquarrel]

yeah you're allowed to have no sympathy for this. Everyone places somewhere on a scale of empathy. It doesn't mean that you can feel that and experience the average amount of empathy in this situation, if that's what you're asking.

[Sparkletshirt]

I haven't read the article but they came across very well on This Week, saying the environment agency and quangos have no idea about maintaining the rivers and live nowhere near them. It was strange that Andrew Neil kept referring to the lovely Debbie McGee though, he's usually quite caustic, until her name came up on the screen as that. It must have been written into their agreement to appear :-).