Flooding stays on the agenda in Ryedale (From Gazette & Herald)

Flooding stays on the agenda in Ryedale

12:56pm Wednesday 1st July 2009

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A SUSTAINED campaign involving several public authorities should be made to speed up the long-awaited flood defence schemes in Ryedale, say councillors.

Ryedale District Council leader Coun Keith Knaggs told the policy and resources committee: “We need sustained and systematic attention given to the issue.”

His motion that the flooding problems should become a permanent item on future agendas was agreed by the committee.

Jeremy Walker, chairman of the Yorkshire Regional Flood Defence Committee, had told Ryedale House that it wanted to ensure the rural dimension in flooding was not overlooked, nor “small pockets” of population at risk in urban areas.

“The agency is in the process of developing policies on the withdrawal of maintenance from flood defence assets where, in the longer term, such maintenance may not be economic.

“This is likely to be a more pressing issue in some of our rural areas,” said Mr Walker.

The district council had been asked for its views prior to the flood committee meeting to be held on July 9.

The Environment Agency’s Yorkshire and North East Region said in a discussion paper to the council that in the long term it was likely to be difficult to improve defences protecting farmland at public expense, and that it may become harder to fund maintenance.

“A number of potential schemes are being discussed for the protection of towns, which involve creating flood storage washlands on farmland.”

The agency’s report, by Philip Winn, the strategic manager, said: “There are frequent calls by landowners for the agency to carry out more maintenance work on drainage outfalls and within river systems to allow land to be more effectively drained. There is a widespread feeling that the agency puts less effort now into dredging and clearing than in the past.”

It added: “Many of the decisions that affect rural communities are driven by the size of the annual budget made available by Defra.

“The agency should continue to work with Defra to increase the overall affect of funding, with the aim that all schemes that are robustly economic, are funded from the public purse.”

Ryedale District Council’s chief executive, Janet Waggott, said: “We can do better by working with drainage boards and our communities and collating it all together.”

Coun Di Keal said there was full support for the defence scheme planned for Pickering, which, with the village of Sinnington, has been one of the worst-hit areas in Ryedale in recent years.

Coun Lindsay Burr said it was important that the council should be pro-active and not re-active in providing flood defence schemes.

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