Non tidal dredging

[oldgit]

I like the Mails suggestion of spending the £1.1bn given away in foreign aid on the river.

If you believe that .07% of the GDP of one of the wealthiest nations in the world ,spent on preventing disease, promoting the health and education and women and children and for improving the lives of those in less fortunate circumstances than ourselves should be spent on helping those whose need a little more experience in navigation , you may be disappointed .

 

[teddington_lock]

How about the £1bn that goes to a country with a nuclear program ? , is nuclear armed , and also has a space program ?

 

[Flynnbarr]

If we are one of the wealthiest nations in the world why doesn't the nation protect its citizens from flooding?

 

[boatone]

Well done guys - fred drifting to attitudes towards oversees aid and nuclear proliferation will really concentrate minds on solving the funding problems affecting the non tidal Thames.

 

[Actionmat]

If you believe that .07% of the GDP of one of the wealthiest nations in the world ,spent on preventing disease, promoting the health and education and women and children and for improving the lives of those in less fortunate circumstances than ourselves should be spent on helping those whose need a little more experience in navigation , you may be disappointed .

Can you find one dedicated cyclist who thinks the millions spent on their hobby should be spent on overseas aid instead? It's an unfortunate example, but goes to show that the Government has plenty of money for infrastructure without the need to flog off lock keepers cottages, reduce services and increase the licence fee year on year above inflation. Even if the Treasury handed over the shortfall to the EA, would they spend it on dredging, moorings, staff on the ground, executive salaries or PR?

I want to see dredging done, I don't know what you mean when you refer to 'those who need a little more experience in navigation', I wasn't proposing free courses in boat handling.

 

[boatone]

One question.why the lack of trust on both sides?i can understand users not trusting the EA but why don't they trust us,what have we done?

Its not so much a question of what we ("us") as individual boaters have done as the way certain user group representatives have managed to harden attitudes towards us by adopting a confrontational approach to EA managers - sometimes to the point of rudeness - which has not, in my view, been at all helpful.

 

[oldgit]

If we are one of the wealthiest nations in the world why doesn't the nation protect its citizens from flooding?

Why buy a house on a area of land that has probably been flooding for tens of thousands of years and then call foul when it rains and expect somebody else to put their hand in their pocket to "bail "you out.
Ps.It will happen again....and again ....and again.

 

[oldgit]

Can you find one dedicated cyclist who thinks the millions spent on their hobby should be spent on overseas aid instead? It's an unfortunate example, but goes to show that the Government has plenty of money for infrastructure without the need to flog off lock keepers cottages, reduce services and increase the licence fee year on year above inflation. Even if the Treasury handed over the shortfall to the EA, would they spend it on dredging, moorings, staff on the ground, executive salaries or PR?

I want to see dredging done, I don't know what you mean when you refer to 'those who need a little more experience in navigation', I wasn't proposing free courses in boat handling.

It a flood plain ...they flood.

 

[534l4rk]

Why buy a house on a area of land that has probably been flooding for tens of thousands of years and then call foul when it rains and expect somebody else to put their hand in their pocket to "bail "you out.
Ps.It will happen again....and again ....and again.

Whilst you have a valid point related to the inevitable flooding of flood plains the reality is that there has been development in the Thames valley sanctioned by the authorities for many years. Maidenhead is a prime example. Additionally. there has been gravel extraction to build motorways. The gravel pits have for many years then been used for waste disposal which has necessitated using liners to prevent contamination of the water table. Again, as with building development, the water table is further displaced. Together with a policy of no longer dredging as the river was deemed to be self scouring has led to more frequent flooding in recent years. The answer for Maidenhead was to build the Jubilee River which resulted in problems further down river.

The amount of rain this year was extreme. If the incidence of extreme weather is to be more frequent then protection for those living in areas that have not been routinely flooded should be afforded. Planning authorities have sanctioned development presumably with the guidance of experts including those from the Environment Agency.

People buy properties near to rivers because they want to live there. Many areas flooded this year for the first time since 1947. If the government can afford probably 50 billion to finance HS2 then they should fund protection for those living in flood plain areas. Thames alleviation schemes down to the tideway should be started now! Many people believe this should have been done before trying to protect Maidenhead.

 

[2Tizwoz]

http://www.dredgingtoday.com/2013/05/31/elbe-river-dredging-contract-awarded-germany/

http://www.spiegel.de/international...g-damaging-elbe-river-ecosystem-a-895853.html

Two news stories that describe the nature of the problem.

http://hamburg.nabu.de/imperia/md/content/hamburg/geschaeftsstelle/elbe/winterwerp_report.pdf

Professor Winterwerp has produced lots of maths to show that the river will become very muddy.

Quite what is presently happening to silt carried from the land and down the river Elbe isn't clearly explained. How many of our ports are dredged of material carried down the associated river?

 

[boatone]

Professor Winterwerp has produced lots of maths to show that the river will become very muddy.

Well thats obviously the solution !!!

 

[oldgit]

" If the government can afford probably 50 billion to finance HS2 then they should fund protection for those living in flood plain areas."

The money to pay for either scheme will have to borrowed. The case being made for HS2 is that it will be an investment for the future and directly benefit a large number of people by boosting the economy of some very deprived areas of the UK and indirectly the UK as whole.
Spending money preventing the back gardens of the good citizens of Windsor and Henley going under water every 10 years or so may not quite have the same appeal perhaps ?

 

[Actionmat]

www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/sn05755.pdf‎

 

[oldgit]

www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/sn05755.pdf‎

"The new funding arrangements seek to encourage more local investment in flood defences, so that schemes that might not be funded nationally may still go ahead."

There you go problem solved

 

[Actionmat]

Just the councils on the Thames or every tributary? You'll pay for it one way or another wether you like it or not, as everyones insurance is going up because it's been a bad year for the insurance companies.

I think it's too large an area to be written off as a local issue and wouldn't increased capacity in the Thames help keep the water off the flood plains?
They're not all new houses, there was plenty of footage of flood victims born well after their homes were built. According to that document only 55% were aware that they were in the zone and thanks to a lack of investment that zone is getting bigger.

 

[boatone]

Just the councils on the Thames or every tributary?

But it doesn't say just "councils", does it ??? It says more "local investment" which I would take to mean business, industry, householders etc as well as local authorities - in other words all those that would gain from protection work.

 

[Actionmat]

Protection work isn't a luxury item, when planning permission was granted to build communities in areas of known risk, they gained the right to protection. And you missed 'river users' off your list

 

[oldgit]

"when planning permission was granted to build communities in areas of known risk, they gained the right to protection."

Will get on to my local council straight away and demand a sea wall in front of my property,had no idea choosing to buy a house near a river would involve being flooded every now and then .
What is really curious of course is the fortune folks will pay to buy a house next to a river !

 

[Actionmat]

Will get on to my local council straight away and demand a sea wall in front of my property...

I'd be happy to contribute to that, but only if it went all the way round.

 

[CJL]

It's kinda inevitable that times are a changing but rather than embrace the change and get the best possible out of the changes forum members seem to be concentrating on banging on about the old days.

Funding is changing, priorities are changing and the climate is changing. Isn't it time we did?

If we don't then we will be in for a significant shock as the year rolls on.

CJL