HAIL AND HIGH WATER
Storm alert as flooding nightmare is blamed on badgers
It’s a message guaranteed to dampen the spirits of rainweary Britons.
Forecasters yesterday warned that further downpours are on their way this week, with torrential rain and thunderstorms due tomorrow and Wednesday.
As many of us wondered what has happened to summer, the Met Office said storms in the Midlands and south could bring hail, lightning and more flooding. June is now on course to be one of the wettest on record.
Last night there were ten flood warnings in place in England – around the rivers steeping, severn and Vyrnwy in shropshire. the weather warning came as a failed £300,000 plan to lure badgers into fake setts was blamed for a flooding nightmare that left hundreds of families without homes at the weekend. Residents of 580 properties around Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, were forced to evacuate after two months’ worth of rain fell in two days.
RAF Chinook helicopters were scrambled to drop almost 400 tons of sand to try to plug a breach in the River steeping’s banks. those living in the area claim they warned two years ago that badgers were causing serious damage to flood defences and weakening the banks of the river.
they called for a cull to protect homes – but instead the Environment Agency spent £313,450 on filling up the setts and relocating the badgers, following complaints from animal rights activists.
the badgers were supposed to be tempted away to purpose-built new ‘homes’ downstream using £50 of peanuts. the man-made setts boasted toilet areas, sleeping space and a communal area but the badgers apparently refused to move in because they were too damp. the Environment Agency has been criticised for not dredging the river. Joe taylor, a landowner near Wainfleet, said: ‘they’ve done very, very little – if any – maintenance of steeping river for the last 20 years.
‘they have done some work on the bank but they’ve spent a lot more money on badger setts – so it’s been wasted money as we consider it.’ One Wainfleet resident going by the online name of ‘shot Fox’ fumed on social media yesterday: ‘With millions of damage suffered by individuals and businesses in the Wainfleet area, any enterprising lawyer fancy a class action [legal claim] against these badger-hugging incompetents?
‘In future there must be no reluctance... to issue individual licences to control badgers destroying our vital flood defences.’
Another resident added on twitter: ‘the Environment Agency were more concerned with badgers than flooding. Now a river bank has burst. Had locals been listened to, this disaster would have been avoided.’ Water levels remained high yesterday. Residents were warned they may have to stay away for several days.
the Environment Agency said the decision to evacuate followed ‘unprecedented’ rainfall, with 5.2in falling between last Monday and Wednesday. More than 100 homes were flooded.
A spokesman stressed: ‘It is not true to say badgers caused the river bank to breach. the banks were put under extraordinary pressure because of the extreme amount of rainfall – more than twice the monthly average in only a couple of days.’ He insisted dredging would have made no difference.
Forecasters said the continuing unsettled weather is down to a large zone of high pressure being trapped far out to sea. It would normally be warming the UK by this time of year.
simon Partridge, of the Met Office, said: ‘summer is happening – there’s glorious sunshine and high pressure... if you’re in the mid-Atlantic.’
‘Tempted with £50 of peanuts’