Just four days after my last blog on the rebuilding of the Little Braithwaite bridge, the County Council has released figures which show the costs of repairing the damage done in Cumbria by the floods last November have amounted to £276 million. According to a report in the Guardian (19 November 2010), insurance companies have received a staggering 25,000 claims for losses resulting from the disaster.
The Guardian’s Martin Wainwright in a companion article states that there are now plans to return to the pre-Victorian ways in order to limit flood damage. The River Derwent and others will be allowed to meander through the fields to provide a larger flood plain and fellside ‘grips’ will be blocked. These are channels, which ironically were cut through wet lands in the 1960s to make them more usable for farming!
Fortunately The Larches is on higher ground and was only marginally affected by the floods last year. As the picture opposite shows the gulley by the garden gate could not take the volume of water cascading down the Ravine and we had to place a barrier just above the drainage point to divert the water and stop it backing up into the side path.
In the light of the floods in Cornwall this last week, let’s hope that the cuts the Government has proposed for flood control measures are now restored before further hardship and damage affects people living in areas vulnerable to flooding.
