Sarah B

And anyone else who might be interested - travelling into Sheffield early this am I had the local Radio Sheffield on for the traffic news, and they had some one from the Media (who were not allowed to film) who attended a meeting about the floods last night. Apparently the Environment Agency said that the equivalent of 20 olympic size swimming pools of water fell on Sheffield every SECOND!!!!during that heavy rain fall - no wonder the rivers could not cope. He also made the valid point that the moors are being stripped of peat, which slows down the flow of water off the hills into the rivers, so the hills are draining faster, and that people are concreting and block paving drive ways, so there is nowhere for the water to go except to run off down the streets. Not only that, the houses at Catcliffe were built on a flood plain and that Westminster can over rule any refusal of planning permission on appeal by the building company. Also, when rivers are re-routed from their original course and can no longer meander their way along, but have to go in a straight line, then the water can rush with a much stronger force as there is nothing to slow it down. At the time of the Carlisle floods, I heard these same arguments - so why don't "they" learn?