Sir – It is clear that if the rain keeps coming there will be additional significant fluvial flooding.
It may well be impossible to defend everybody from flooding but there is more that can be done and by that I don’t mean just ‘spend more on flood defences’ and ‘distribute more sandbags’.
In my opinion, the probability of flooding will continue to increase steadily over time due to the premeditated neglect of land drainage infrastructure maintenance.
In particular, I believe the failure to dredge and/or de-silt designated main rivers (and their associated backwaters) for flood defence purposes is exacerbating flooding. It is time to impose a legal duty on the Environment Agency to maintain and/or improve the conveyance capacity of designated main rivers and their backwaters.
Ewan Larcombe, Datchet
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