Watch the short campaign film I made here Flood Campaign film
I live 180 metres from the banks of the River Severn in the ancient market town of Bridgnorth, Shropshire. As I write this I have received a flood alert. This is the new reality here and so many other places. Recently The Guardian published a major story about the Severn - asking the question 'what can we do'? You can read it here (warning it's depressing news) The Guardian River Severn flood feature . Interestingly they focus on the Georgian town of Bewdley, 15 miles downstream of here, which has received visit's from Prime Ministers who arrive for a photo-opportunity and promise the earth (or 'earth movers'). It's so political and meantime Bridgnorth is the Aunt Sally to Bewdley's guilded lady. Anyway, evidently dredging the river won't help (dredging is received wisdom in these parts). There are no solutions but if we have a joined up strategy to create natural measures then we could mitigate some of it. It's happening a few miles from here on a piece of old farm land which the Severn tributary called the River Worfe runs through and I visited it recently. They cut tree's, divert the overflowing river, create more bends, create natural partial dams.
It seems what nature takes away nature can also give back. But is the political will there to take this seriously and create a multi-agency task force ? The local flood group here have spent 4 years trying to get a plan together and it appears that this particular snail is finally moving faster with the support of the NFA - the National Flood Forum.