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Joint campaign for rivers to be dredged
DREDGE the rivers. That's the message to Environment Agency bosses from community leaders and farmers in Ryedale.
The call came as the county council's Ryedale Area Committee discussed the agency's River Derwent catchment flood management plan, which is out for public consultation.
Steve Wragg, project manager with the agency, told the meeting its purpose was to "manage" the flood risk from the river for the next 50 to 100 years, with the greatest emphasis on measures to protect urban areas. He admitted it contained some controversial ideas, including removing flood banks in rural areas like Ryedale to "reconnect the river with its flood plain".
This would have to be done in partnership with landowners and local authorities, he said, because the agency did not own the land or had the power to do it. Pickering's Mayor Cllr Julie Hepworth said river maintenance and dredging should be a priority, and said residents recalled the days when they could swim in six feet of water in the beck above The Rookers, north of the town centre.
Cllr Hepworth said: "The beck hasn't been dredged for 27 years. You can hardly paddle in it now because it's so full of silt." And Peter Easterby, who farms at Great Habton, said: "You may find this hard to believe but I had two sheep walk across the Rye on willow trees to my neighbour's land.
We must get the rivers cleared out." Cllr "Tot" Wardle said willow trees had been planted along the rivers to stop banks eroding but had never been cut back or maintained and caused blockages. He said the banks and river bed should be cleared and the agency shouldn't be looking at allowing productive farmland to flood, especially when a world shortage of cereals was forecast.
Cllr Wardle suggested the flow of the river should be reversed where the Derwent and Rye meet near Howe Bridge, close to Malton, to take flood waters out to sea but Mr Wragg said that would be a massive and costly engineering solution. Ray Hall, of Sherburn Parish Council, joined the clamour for dredging, as did County Cllr David Lloyd- Williams, of Norton.
He said: "If you've got 27 years of silt, dredging it out and putting it on the banks gives you a win-win because the banks are higher." County Cllr Ron Haigh said: "This committee needs to send a clear message of support for dredging."
Committee chairman County Cllr Mike Knaggs called for flood defences to be provided in Pickering because he believed the multi-million pound defences built in Malton and Norton restricted the flow and meant flood water would "back up" and cause "serious" problems for the town in future, as the floods of June had showed.
The committee noted that 18 per cent of funds raised by local drainage boards from farmers and landowners for maintenance went into a "national pot" to be spent where the flood risk is deemed the greatest in the country, but Cllr John Raper said: "We should lobby for all the money raised in this area to be spent in this area."
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Weather for Malton
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
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Temperature: 11 C to 18 C
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