River Thames in Oxford now on flood warning (From Oxford Mail)

Since my childhood in Botley I have been used to watching for the annual winter flooding, as has everybody else.

Now we have an organisation devoted to issuing (pointless?) public warnings and the Oxford Mail issues daily stories about it.

How much of the effort devoted to flooding is actually about the people and places that have really been flooded unexpectedly? Almost none?

...not everyone has lived in the area since their childhood so these kind of public warnings are still very useful, particularly to those new to the area.

To smug cynic Xjohnx who I assume has never had his home flooded, I say that people is Osney and Earl Street and around there HAVE been flooded in the recent past, that it is a dreadfully upsetting, disruptive and costly experience and a great worry that it may occur again, that the work of the EA, Council and other agencies to reduce flood risk by clearing watercourses and installing pumps and mobile barriers is GREATLY appreciated by many, many local people and please ignore smartarses whose only pleasure in life is to scorn and mock, sad people they must be!

Exactly, I would rather read a warning message twice than not at all.

Could do without reading stupid comments like that not the time or place

Could do without reading stupid comments like that not the time or place john

OK then. As long as your happy to chip in to pay for it. Disaster warning has now become a big buck industry. There your taxes.

I have been flooded several times and still say that I or nobody I know, has been helped significantly by flood warnings.

Peoples stress levels on the other hand are often driven right off the scale.

Sophia is a very rude person.

Just reading the Mail's other breaking news on floods in Witney, where mention of 'Riverside Gardens' and 'Bridge Street' gives a strong indication that flood victims must live near to streams or rivers. As such, they are statistically more likely to be affected than if they didn't, and the reason why in the old days the 'sensible folk' didn't build homes where flooding was a possibility - and never on water meadows or flood plains! Witney's problem with the increase in flooding also applies to other parts of the County, where large areas of farmland have been 'covered in concrete' and built-on around villages and especially towns, with both more domestic housing and commercial business parks. So places which may not have previously had problems with flooding, now increasingly do - and the more rain or snow we get, the worse this becomes. The issues connected with flooding have also strong connections with the dramatic changes in farming methods since the 1960s, with small fields and land drainage ditches been replaced by large field systems for higher profits and easier management - not only at the loss of hedgerows, but lack of adequate drainage and run-off capable of dealing with ground water - especially in the Oxford Clay Vale. The latter creates problems where rainwater off large field sysyems enters brooks, streams and rivers, and the knock-on effect can and usually is felt several miles downstream. All the new housing development in and around Witney and other towns in recent years may have helped boost local economies, increase councilf tax revenues and to create and satisfy housing needs - but at what cost, if domestic and retail premises increasingly can't get insurance cover due to repeat flooding? Farmers need to be held more accountable for negative-impact methods where these exist, and planning authorities must also be held more accountable to the people who pay council employee wages, the allowances and expenses of elected councillors, council tax and income tax. Maybe this is something which the good people of Witney should confront their local Tory MP about, next time they see him popping into the local pub for a photo-call and news interview about what it's like to be able to 'walk on water' when mere mortals just get flooded-out? After all, who needs to run off to Australia, when the MP can take part in a proper 'reality show' shared by millions, and a lot closer to home .....

isn't this years drought going well

Have they lifted the hosepipe ban yet?

Wait until all these houses are built at Barton on the fields that are under water now and every other year and then see what happens.