To be fed up with floods and think it's climate change?

[malificent7]

Live and work in Somerset. Can't get home due to floods. This is the 3rd time in 2 months that the commute has been dangerous. Aibu to think that this is climate change and to be scared and pissed off about it? Yes...i am a contributor to the oroblem. I know.

This. Blaming it on not being able to dredge and blocked drains (which probably contribute to a minor extent) is indeed for the flat earthers

If our local council bothered to clear our drains then the water would actually have somewhere to run to. Our road floods with one shower, let alone prolonged rain. It's the same for a lot of roads around here, nothing has changed since the bad flooding 10 years ago.

I asked the council what they intended to do about the drains and was told they can't afford their own machinery, they need to borrow it from a neighbouring council. This was several years ago nothing has been done. It clearly won't solve all the problems but it could mean the poor people who were flooded last time might not be again.

You are completely misinformed. So much so that I can’t even be bothered to tell in what ways. Just actually look for the scientific consensus documents rather than relying on social media algorithms.

OP you are right to think this is climate change and that we are causing it. It is only going going to get worse. We do still have time to avert the worst consequences but we are so stupid we continue with our collective heads buried in the sand. The film ‘Don’t Look Up’ is about right. We are idiots.

Yep

The loss of native species like beavers which perform natural land management.

Meanwhile, in Canada, beavers are contributing to climate change by migrating north as the weather warms and buildings dams that are melting the permafrost

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/02/global-heating-beavers-alaska-northern-canada

its a car crash on a global scale, everywhere you look

Erm Beavers aren't causing climate change! They're exacerbating the impact by adapting to human-made climate change which is forcing them to migrate north.

Poor beavers.

Just watch David Attenborough's latest series for a sobering update. Polar bears ans penguins aren't running out of ice because of clogged drains.

I read about an effect called ice-albedo feedback which accelerates this process. Basically, ice is effective at reflecting solar energy back up into the atmosphere, so as it melts, the ground absorbs more solar energy and warms up, causing more ice to melt.

What District council did you work for @Cattenberg? I'm not aware of any Districts that don't get RSG or Business Rates but if you say who they are I can look them up on the DLUHC published pages and confirm that.

Please post a link to a reputable source that confirms your assertion @LightSwerve. CSP has not been cut by 40% in real terms.

I'm also interested to know how you've accounted for the formula changes in 13/14 since that comparison is something we struggle with at work. If you have a source that calculates the changes since 2010 I'd be very genuinely interested in seeing it.

Climate change is going to bring more wet weather in winter.

Couple that with building on flood plains, poor maintenance etc and you wonder why floods are more likely to happen.

Oh I wouldn't think my sources would be good enough for you @AnneElliott

What we do all know just by being alive today is what I posted upthread, which I'll repeat just because I'm so cross with the bloody state of everything: Spending pressure/proximity to bankruptcy varies massively council to council, but what we can say with absolute certainty is the Tories have in 13 years almost destroyed local government by cutting their grants whilst doing fuck all about the social care crisis, and have transferred an increasing council tax burden to us all as an added insult.

Erm, yes that’s what I said

It’s because the Tories don’t invest in flood defences.

Here’s an article from 2016 warning about future problems.
https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/02/tory-cuts-wrecking-uk-flood-defences

and here’s one from last month about 40% cuts
https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/15/flooding-defence-protection-england-properties-cut-nao

This government is all about kick backs to big business and tax havens for oligarchs. It doesn’t care about infrastructure. Probably the cabinet of millionaires would enjoy living behind a moat.

Do you think Labour’s building plans will help though?

It might be outing for me to post the council name as I know a few of my former colleagues are MNers, but it was a former Somerset DC.

I never claimed that our council didn’t get Business Rates/NDR. Businesses pay these charges to the council directly, in a very similar way to Council Tax. This income doesn’t come from the government.

Building fewer houses would be a big help too. Keep the countryside and trees and flood plains.

Business Rates are collected by the billing authorities @Cattenberg but it's not as simple as them keeping what they collect. There are both top up and tariff authorities plus the pools which mean what's collected in an area isn't the income received by the authority. And before the changes to business rates in 13/14 this collection still happened it's just the baseline for business rates wasn't a public number but determined each year in the settlement.

But what you're saying then is if you ignore NNDR then there are district councils that don't get RSG?

No reason why your sources wouldn't be good enough for me @LightSwerve. If the ONS or similar organisation has published that number I'd be very interested to see it. I'm just reasonably confident that no one has published that, as local government funding is something I'm pretty knowledgeable about - but I'm always happy to learn.

It's fine to have views on local government funding and central government decisions but it's annoying when posters make sweeping statements with actual numbers in that they can't back up. As a finance person I always want to know where the number has come from.

No idea about RSG to be honest. I took our Chief Exec at his word. I’d suggest you have it out with him, but he has moved on. I’m relieved that I’ve also moved on, as apparently our Unitary authority might yet be forced to issue a section 114 notice. Desperate times.

We used to dredge we no longer do we don't really maintain our waterways

we build on floodplains and are surprised when they flood

cut down trees and are surprised when the banks collapse

Locally we diverted a river but we arnt maintaining the diversion its a sharp bend mud sticks causing the river to bottle up at that point pushing more mud up the sides we now have an island the river is forced around this island and its eroding the banks (they removed the trees holding them together) causing more mud to travel downstream causing more blocks downstream in ten years we have gone from a healthy river to a disaster waiting to happen

Plus flood barriers push trouble down

Of course it’s climate change.

Of course it's climate change and particularly other countries emissions directly affecting us. Look at how many days of heavy rainfall we have had since December and tell me if that's normal and yes we are a rainy country but not every single day. Yes our infrastructure is pretty shit just as how it would be shit if there was heavy snowfall as we wouldn't cope but the country wasn't designed for heavy snow as we don't get it nor was it designed for 40 days of non stop heavy rain but now we are getting it more and more every year due to climate change.

I also live in Somerset and a large part of the problem is the fact that ditches aren’t maintained anymore. Farmers used to be paid by the government to keep them clear but thanks to spending cuts that doesn’t happen anymore. So there’s nowhere for water to run off the roads too.

I know people are expecting Labour to fix everything and make funding issues go away but reading this thread and huge and growing social care costs, increased flooding and expectation gov will pay up when it happens, and extra building I can’t see it looking good

Climate issues such as excess rain, flooding and really high state dependency generally, it’s all going to be hard.

Plus I assume insurance rates will be impacted at some point

Road side drains are the responsibility of of local government.