FLOOD SCHEME SNUBBED (From Gazette & Herald)

FLOOD SCHEME SNUBBED

CALLS from a Ryedale councillor for the district council to spend £50,000 to help combat flooding in rural areas of the district have been snubbed by other members.

The authority has published a draft report on agricultural land drainage which went before a private meeting of its overview and scrutiny committee last week.

It follows extensive research and interviews by the council into the operation of drainage boards operating in Ryedale, and calls from councillors last summer that action should be taken to ensure the maintenance of the Rivers Derwent and Rye to alleviate flooding problems.

Coun Paul Andrews, one of Malton's representatives on the council, said he wants Ryedale District Council (RDC) to spend £50,000 from its reserves to hire an engineering consultant to carry out in survey of possible action which could be taken.

"This kind of investigation would not be a detailed design brief but would look at the drainage systems in the Vale of Pickering and to consider how flooding problems and land drainage could be improved."

He added that he did not believe such action could completely prevent flooding but he hoped that experts could produce ideas which could be agreed with the Environment Agency (EA), which has the responsibility in the main for water courses.

Coun Andrews felt there was probably data available which could be fed into a computer to aid the research. RDC should set up a member-officer working group, he said, to carry out the survey with engineers.

"The group would then report back to the committee and the council. I am not suggesting that the council throws away £50,000, but rather that the money could make a positive step to engage a leading professional."

The survey, he said, would cover the rural areas and not Pickering, Malton or Norton.

"The scrutiny committee's report was not intended to take in those areas," he said.

"I didn't accept the report because it only told the public bodies to talk nicely to each other - no positive action was proposed."

Members of the committee had been asked to put forward amendments, but Coun Andrews says a meeting to discuss amendments was cancelled because no amendments had been put forward, despite his request for his ideas to be considered.

"I made it clear that I wanted consultants to be appointed. I am anxious for the public to be consulted on this draft report because flooding is a huge issue in Ryedale."

Coun Andrews added: "I do not believe that RDC is prepared to put its money where its mouth is."

The scrutiny committee had focused on two key questions, says the 70-plus page report. These were how agricultural land drainage should operate in Ryedale, and how to achieve a balance between maximising water flow in ditches, rivers and streams at peak and non-peak time, against social, environmental and ecological issues.

The committee interviewed a wide cross-section of interested parties, including the EA, landowners, English Nature, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, drainage board officials, the National Flood Forum, as well as RDC officers. It also considered letters from the public.

The evidence taken covered the history of the drainage issue and the rivers Derwent, Rye, Hertford, Dove and Seven.

Its findings revealed that the land drainage was no longer a primary concern of the EA.

The report says: "We have agreed with the Environment Agency that within the council's area there are 4.83 km of 'critical watercourses' - Burnt Gill; Hovingham Beck; Mill Race, Kirby Mills; Priorpot Beck, Norton; Mill Beck, Norton; and Thornton Beck, Thornton-le-Dale."

In its recommendations, the report says that improved maintenance could help to maximise flows in ditches, rivers and streams. It also calls for the setting-up of a "working together better" protocol between RDC and the EA.

The EA is also urged to review its current maintenance arrangements.

Coun Andrews, in his report to the committee, said: "The EA will not accept that dredging the main rivers will improve land drainage. It doesn't accept that employing a few men and machines could be economical in terms of cleansing the rivers."

He added: "The rivers have not been properly maintained for years. The growth of willows and other vegetation has caused narrowing in the river channels."

However, scrutiny chairman Coun Pamela Anderson said that Coun Andrews had been told that while his proposal had not been accepted by the committee, he could produce his own minority report.

She added that the draft report was going out for consultation to the organisations and individuals who had been interviewed and put forward their views. She added that the scrutiny committee had no spending powers. "We have gone into the drainage issue in great depth."

Coun Anderson said the draft report would go back to the committee when theviews on it were received from the consultees and it would then be put to the policy and resources committee in the next few weeks, and then the full council.

Updated: 11:50 Wednesday, May 19, 2004