Jubilee River & Wraysbury floods

Pump-Out said:
"Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, who is in charge of the government's flood defence
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Mr Pickles career will be an interesting one from here on in,mind you shame to waste all that vast knowledge about civil engineering and Hydrology gained from years of experience.:)

Erics career to date
•Leader of Bradford Council (1988-1990),
•Deputy-Leader of the Conservative GroupAMA (1989-1991),
•National Young Conservative Chairman (1980-81)
•Member of Yorkshire Regional Health Authority (1982-1990),
•Vice-Chairman of Keighley Conservative Association (1986-1990),
•Co-Chairman of the Joint Committee Against Racism (1982-1987),
•Member of the Environment Select Committee (1992-1993).

H,mm one year on a environment committee over 20 years ago.
 
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oldgit said:
Mr Pickles career will be an interesting one from here on in,mind you shame to waste all that vast knowledge about civil engineering and Hydrology gained from years of experience.:)

Erics career to date
•Leader of Bradford Council (1988-1990),
•Deputy-Leader of the Conservative GroupAMA (1989-1991),
•National Young Conservative Chairman (1980-81)
•Member of Yorkshire Regional Health Authority (1982-1990),
•Vice-Chairman of Keighley Conservative Association (1986-1990),
•Co-Chairman of the Joint Committee Against Racism (1982-1987),
•Member of the Environment Select Committee (1992-1993).

H,mm one year on a environment committee over 20 years ago.
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Could you expand on the qualifications chris smith brought to the table when appointed?
 
2Tizwoz said:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1022290.stm
He had practice of making a mess when he was responsible for the Millenium Dome.
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Do you mean this Dome .:)

"Despite its lousy reputation, the Dome still managed to attract 6.5 million people in its first 12 months of operation – hardly a disaster. Indeed, this number was slightly higher than the Festival of Britain managed in 1951"

" As a music venue, it is reportedly the most visited arena in the world. From the expensive debacle that was the Millennium Dome, something quite special has sprung"

" The O2 Arena took the crown of the world's busiest music arena from the Manchester Arena, a title which it had held since 2001"

"Despite The O2 Arena being open for only seven months of the year, the venue sold over 1.2 million tickets in 2007, making it the third most popular venue in the world for concerts and family shows narrowly behind the Manchester Arena (1.25 million) and Madison Square Garden in New York City (1.23 million). By 2008 it had become the world's busiest venue with sales of more than two million, taking the crown from MEN Arena"
 
boatone said:
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond at Wraysbury this morning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GgW6-x8SDvQ
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I actually watched that. PH gave a good account of himself, methinks.
It was fantastic to see the local community getting together and doing things, OTOH (what appears to be) total lack of communication between the local authorities - whoever they may be and the volunteers. SO often sitting in their offices making decisions and only going through the motions (!) when talking to the ratepayers.
 
Flynnbarr said:
Nope still can't find any relevant qualifications:)
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And what qualifications does our Prime minister, or even the American president have?

Sometimes you just need to know how to manage people.

The problem is, some people think this all could have been averted. It couldn't. Trying to stop flooding when to rains this much is like sticking your finger in a volcano...
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_O2_Arena
oldgit said:
Do you mean this Dome .:)

"Despite its lousy reputation, the Dome still managed to attract 6.5 million people in its first 12 months of operation – hardly a disaster. Indeed, this number was slightly higher than the Festival of Britain managed in 1951"

" As a music venue, it is reportedly the most visited arena in the world. From the expensive debacle that was the Millennium Dome, something quite special has sprung"

" The O2 Arena took the crown of the world's busiest music arena from the Manchester Arena, a title which it had held since 2001"

"Despite The O2 Arena being open for only seven months of the year, the venue sold over 1.2 million tickets in 2007, making it the third most popular venue in the world for concerts and family shows narrowly behind the Manchester Arena (1.25 million) and Madison Square Garden in New York City (1.23 million). By 2008 it had become the world's busiest venue with sales of more than two million, taking the crown from MEN Arena"
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You're confusing the redeveloped O2 Arena that opened in 2007 with the Millenium Dome that closed in 2000.
 
The Jubilee river was constructed to stop Maidenhead and its flood plains from flooding. The water that use to spill out into Maidenhead is not retained within the Thames. However the Jubilee River shortens the river and delivers water faster to Datchet than with it flowing via the Thames, in addition mrs water is now delivered downstream because it would otherwise have been lost at Maidenhead. There are fewer houses in Wraysbury and Datchet than Maidenhead so this was seen as a positive move but no one will admit this because the properties that are not afflicted should be compensated for their loss.

All of this was known before construction it was an economic decision. The problem with this is that people who bought in Maidenhead knew they were subject to flooding and the people downstream knew they were not, the flooding downstream is a political construction and their loss is a direct benefit to the people of Maidenhead. It is simply unfair to the people of Wraysbury to provide relief at the expense of the people of Wraysbury.

The true victims of the Jubilee river are the people of Chertsey, who now enjoy flooding every year, but there is no publicity for them because the number of houses is low, but for those afflicted it is truly terrible.

There is a government coverup about this entire thing and the river should be filled in. There are well documented parts of America where they have tried to manage and control rivers and the results are flash floods which never happened before.
 
The people & Councillors of Wraysbury aren't letting this drop, and suspect the money no object offer to be relatively worthless, on BBC Radio Berks this morning, but one Councillor made a very good point; why was the Jubilee River built first? Wouldn't it made more sense to start at Teddington at work the way up, avoiding the water being dumped in the Wraysbury area?

The representative from the EA Andrew (Graham?) said £140m already earmarked for the relief river downstream, but the Government required Councils, businesses and other partners to chip in the other £110m.

He also said it was a technically difficult project, and could take 17 years to complete - I suspect he explained why but I missed that bit.

Does seem (despite the Wraybury's residents and Councillors scepticism) there may be slow movement for a long-term strategy.
 
ianc1200 said:
The representative from the EA Andrew (Graham?) said £140m already earmarked for the relief river downstream, but the Government required Councils, businesses and other partners to chip in the other £110m.
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Referred to him as Andrew "Howard" but definitely sounded like Andrew Graham to me. He is part of the EA Thames navigation management team and has responsibility for the volunteer lockies.
 
Thanks Tony. did you hear why it would take 17 years and/or what the technical difficulties are?

BBC News South reported Oxford MP's/Councillors had a meeting at No.10 today to press for long term solutions quoted as costing £110m.
 
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