The National Farmers Union and National Trust are calling on the government to do more to make the countryside flood-resilient. Flooding in parts of northern England after Storm Desmond’s record rainfall a year ago caused landslides and river bank erosion, saw tonnes of stones and gravel washed on to agricultural land, killed sheep and damaged paths, fencing and walls.
The National Trust, which looks after a fifth of the land in the Lake District including England’s highest mountain, Scafell Pike, William Wordsworth’s childhood home and 91 tenanted farms, said its rangers were still fixing the damage caused.
The charity said it was left facing a £1 million clean-up bill from floods, including £600,000 of uninsured damage.
Parts of the Lake District were damaged by the floods
And hundreds of farmers affected by Storm Desmond, which hit farming communities across northern England, are still waiting for emergency funding to restore agricultural land, the National Farmers Union (NFU) said.
Storm Desmond brought record rainfall to the Lake District, with 341.4 mm (13.4 inches) falling at Honister Pass, Borrowdale, Cumbria, in a 24-hour period.
The National Trust said many of its important places in the national park were hit.
Wordsworth House, Cockermouth, and the boathouse and shop at Fell Foot Country Park were left under water, landslides on Cat Bells, near Keswick, ripped through paths popular with walkers and stones were washed into and damaged Myners Head Mine, Ullswater.
With Storm Desmond the third major storm to hit the Lake District in a decade, the National Trust is calling for ways to make the region more resilient, including natural measures to reduce floods such as planting trees and restoring rivers to their original course.
Mike Innerdale, National Trust assistant director of operations in the Lake District, said:
Farmers are still waiting for payments.
The National Trust has welcomed the Government’s £15 million commitment to natural flood defence measures, which the organisation says can help reduce flooding downstream.
The NFU also welcomed funding for natural flood defences but said they were not a universal solution and must be used alongside other measures across water catchments to improve flood resilience for rural as well as urban communities.
NFU deputy president Minette Batters said flood prevention needed to recognise the importance of the food and farming industry, and that some of the most productive agricultural land was in floodplain or coastal areas and should be protected.
And she said:
An Environment Department (Defra) spokeswoman said: “The Government has invested £300 million in helping communities recover from last winter’s floods – this includes almost £4.4 million paid out to farmers to complete flood repairs.”
A good summary of the situation. NT and NFU are both right… there is no silver bullet here, rather a need for coordinated joined-up thinking and action throughout the catchment from headwaters to the sea. @Larry R de-silting rivers is only ever good as a localised solution to local flooding problems… we need to address the problem at source and then increase resilience throughout the system and not just dredge and build yet more hard flood defences. As yourself where the silt comes from in the first place. Try reading http://ow.ly/Ldb5306SeeW
Hopefully Leadsom will get her act together as previous Ministers have got caught up with the Leftie greenie idiots. De-silt the rivers. Humans more important than some bloody snail or fish.