Environment Agency

[Andrewcook]

Can any Forum Member tell me this question ? Is it the environment agency  responsibilities for Ditch clearing around the Broads to prevent it from Flooding 

[JennyMorgan]

18 minutes ago, Andrewcook said:

Can any Forum Member tell me this question ? Is it the environment agency  responsibilities for Ditch clearing around the Broads to prevent it from Flooding 

I believe that it is firstly down to the riparian landowner. It might also be down to the local internal drainage board. The local Parish Council office should be able to advise. 

[marshman]

Whilst downstream there are flood banks to stop the river overtopping, further upstream most of large areas of marsh are "designed" to flood so they can take up a lot of the surplus water coming downstream - all around Ranworth and Horning the marshes are currently flooded, but that stops it going elsewhere. Its a bit complicated and the Northern Rivers are very different to the S Rivers where more of the water drains away more quickly.

In certain places gaps have deliberately been left in flood walls so that land behind can flood above a certain level -  as PW says landowners, and the Internal Drainage Boards play their roles as well but all in all, Broadland rarely floods disastrously partly as a result of the river banks having all been raised/renewed over the last 15 years or so  - by the EA.

 

[Vaughan]

11 hours ago, marshman said:

most of large areas of marsh are "designed" to flood so they can take up a lot of the surplus water coming downstream -

What you are talking about are called washlands.  There used to many of these on the lower Bure and lower Waveney but they became protected by high flood banks when the farmers wanted to do away with the grazing meadows and grow arable crops, by deep dyke drainage.  As a result, the water had nowhere else to go and so now we have flood banks in Reedham, St Olaves, Stokesby and several other communities, which never needed them before.

I remain very sceptical about the new flood banks and would prefer to see the washlands re-instated, now that the farmers are not growing arable any more!

[Bytheriver]

Many moons ago when I was a Park Manager in London & we had some areas with huge run off in wet weather ( most of the old streams and ditches were of course  of course piped as development occurred in past 150 years), I was told that the EA (or whatever it was called then) had two schools of thought among its top people Firstly  those who wanted to get rid of water fast by dredging, piling of banks, removal of obstructions on a regular basis etc and the others who wanted to hold water back in extreme weather. At the time (1980s) the policy was beginning to swing in favour of holding back.

This was not denied by EA in Wessex when I was a Flood Warden 2006-2016 when I raised it.

This very much came to the fore at the time of the Somerset Levels floods when many referred to the earlier practice of keeping the main rivers deep & clear. Some dredging was then carried out & I am sure there is a report out there as to what has happened since.