Flood defences V Bridge to NI

[StoneofDestiny]

AIBU to think flood defences should be secured across the UK before a £20 Billion pound bridge to NI should even be thought about.

YANBU - flood defences should get priority
YABU - bridge should be prioritised

As King Canute proved, you cannot hold back water, it always finds a way.
The tide and rivers are different.

The fact that river flooding has not been addressed by catchment management over the last 30 years is a crying shame.

Dredging never was and is not a solution.
The solution is to slow the movement of water from rainfall into the river

• planting trees
• ensuring that surfaces are permeable
• contour line ditches where needed

all ideas that were first put into use in Mesopotamia 10,000 years ago but they are not sexy and do not make photo opportunities

PLEASE
When the water drops, start to hold local landowners to account
you'll never get flood insurance
but you might get a drier home

We may as well spend the millions wasted on pointless flood defences to build a bridge between Scotland and Ireland

In the realm of transport - maybe we could get our train and bus services improved? More links in rural areas? Maybe we could get the fares reduced? However - flooding will still block the links.

For sure we don't need a bridge to NI - but if £20 Billion is available for it, why are the NHS and Education being starved of resources.

Checking Loch Ness for monsters should come before the bridge to N Ireland.

Boris has a thing for totally ludicrous bridge proposals

www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/16/you-pay-for-it-chum-boris-johnson-struggle-save-garden-bridge

There's no point building the bridge when the roads in that part of Scotland are poor and desperately need upgrading. Also there were also huge problems while laying a gas pipe across that area of sea about 25-30 years ago. They discovered that not all the munitions were dumped in Beaufort's Dyke where they should have been and on being disturbed started washing up on beaches along the coast. 😐

It's just a big vanity project - not needed, not asked for and a complete distraction and his offering to 'the north' (as he thinks anything above London is)

Absolutely none of the flood management measures mentioned on this thread would have stopped us flooding today. It was not run off water from fields that flooded our homes but just the sheer volume of rain water over the past 48 hours that made the river burst it's banks. The river rose so quickly it didn't trigger the flood defences in time and they were put up too late to have any affect.
The flood barriers are not great either as the water comes up through drains and cellars or even through flooring without a concrete base.
Pouring more money into flood defences is pointless, we need to use the money to compensate those affected and buy out their homes / make building on flood plains illegal.

Natural flood management measures are designed to stop river levels rising quickly Harpingdon - they literally "slow the flow" to help avert flooding. But yes, in the lowlands water has to go somewhere too and floodplains are the obvious answer. Pity were still building on them.

The doomed Garden Bridge was merely over a river, and no ocean winds or munition dumps were involved. That wasted £53million.
But a bridge is so much more exciting than boring ditch clearing, not burning heather moors to facilitate grouse breeding, so that the rainwater is not slowed down, or planting more trees, etc., etc.

Harpingon
Flood alleviation has its limits

in 2012 the water table in Hambledon in Hampshire rose to 15cm above the ground for six months
ie there was six inches of water everywhere for months
but a way was found the old Tudor flood tunnel broken in WW2 was rebuilt

however when you see street names like Fishlake Meadows and streams Edge you have to wonder!!

Some very wealthy people will need to pay a bit more in tax.

Tory government. That's never going to happen

Flood mitigation is CHEAP
counted in the single millions not billions
its just not sexy
but it would save hundreds of homes from stress and damage

PLEASE start to ask your council and MP about it every day

Natural flood management is poop. Some towns have always flooded and always will. Flood barriers etc just mean the water comes up through our drains and toilets. Planting trees etc. does bugger all (yes we've had our fair share of "environmental" bollcks here and it's made absolutely bugger all difference)despite costing a blummin fortune!!. In fact someone put a photo up of a flood in the 1920s that was much worse despite there being tonnes of trees and unfettered flood plains.
The town was built in a bad place on the bend of a river.

Northern Irish lorry drivers would appreciate it more if the money was spent upgrading the A75 road from Stranraer in Scotland where the ferries come in to England to be able to handle the daily haulage traffic better. I’m sure folks that live in that area would prefer that too.

Likewise over in NI we have more need of railways and road upgrades than we do of a bridge to Scotland. There were about 6 motorways promised for Northern Ireland in the sixties by the government . 60 years later they still haven’t been built. One half of the country has no railway lines.

A bridge would be closed half the time due to winds and the elephant in the room is that it most certainly would be an IRA target. After all why would they be happy with a permanent physical connection to GB?

Boris has considered 2 routes to his bridge. The shortest is between 2 unspoilt natural beauty areas of ballycastle and mull of kintyre. A bridge would destroy the beauty of both areas and would be pointless as neither area is good for transport routes from the cities.

The other route is 28 miles long and over a ww2 bomb dumping ground

Not a good use of public money at all

Harpingon
some towns - like York and the Lowther - deal with flooding as a fact of life
others - like Hebden - have it thrown on them by shit land management upstream
others - like Chichester - allow building on their flood plains

but the damage can be avoided

Listengquietly...id love to know how the damage can be avoided, as would my neighbors.... Do enlighten us.

And for some towns that are flooding now it’s a once -in-a-hundred-years event. Derby and Birmingham are not noted for flooding. Climate change innit, and I’m not honestly sure what can be done. I saw something earlier about how some coastal areas may simply have to be abandoned. We could have done with talking to the Dutch about it before leaving the EU perhaps, or listening to anyone talking about climate change for the last 40 years.

Harpingon
Tell me what town you are in (PM if you are happier) and I'll find you the info
it will exist

Derby and Birmingham are not noted for flooding
Birmingham which has more canals than Venice .....

... and still isn’t noted for flooding. Not sure what you mean, unless you’re saying the canals help?

Only they’re not doing so right now. Neither are Derbyshire’s many rivers.

Every catchment needs to be managed appropriately

ListeningQuietly.....yes of course, because you are an expert, unlike all the actual experts who are in my town working, bemoaning the futility of it all with us....
Maybe they should all pm you too and you can let them into the secret, because we're all fed up of walking around in our own urine and poop....
(a little fed up of being told we need to plant trees upstream!!) Doh!!

Bridge is a daft, headline grabbing fairy tale that will do nothing to solve the border issues Brexit has created or prevent the unification of the island if that’s what’s Boris was hoping for. Idiot.

Maybe don't pm me but send your amazing solution to the EA. I'm sure they will be thrilled they have overlooked it and can save millions.......

The bridge is a great way to get English people frothing about the pointlessness of Scotland and NI while appearing as if Boris is actually doing something for Scotland and NI, so that when the union breaks up - which it will - Boris can pretend he wasn't to blame and English people won't be pissed off.

I live in NI. I'd love a bridge to Scotland. But it is impossible.