Sir – I live in Old Botley and in 2007 my house was comprehensively flooded, so you can imagine that I pay close attention to the Environment Agency’s efforts to keep water moving.


Since 2007, they have put in a programme of dredging and clearing the rivers and streams around West Oxford at least which has made the whole difference. As a result, although we have had far more rain this year than in 2007, we haven’t flooded so far — touch wood!


Thanks should largely go to the Oxfordshire Flood Alliance, a band of people from all the flooded areas from Wolvercote to Kennington, who studied the photographs of the last floods, worked out what was needed to let water flow away, and persuaded Thames Water and the Environment Agency to act on their suggestions. The work isn’t finished yet, but it is getting there. Credit is also due to TW and the EA for meeting them more than halfway.
 

As a result, the rivers are flowing strongly, the waters are pouring away, and the ground is not as saturated as it was five years ago. I know this for a fact because when my house floods, it is not from an overflowing river, but because the water table is higher than my kitchen floor.


Just three things are needed to keep things in this good state: for the agencies involved to complete the OFA work; for the EA to set up a rolling programme to clear the waterways on a regular basis; and for the county council to work out a way of monitoring, helping and enforcing landowners along the banks of streams and ditches to carry out their legal duty of keeping them cleared.
And, with luck, this should save the EA — and that means all of us — the millions of pounds they would like to spend on a mighty macho flood channel project to take away flood water in a ‘100-year scenario’ that will change the landscape along the western edge of Oxford for ever.
Angela MacKeith, Oxford