Landowners may be paid to let fields flood to protect towns
FARMERS could be paid to let their land flood, the Environment Secretary said yesterday, as more rain threatened parts of Wales and the North West.
“Using natural flood plains, planting trees and holding water upstream can reduce the flow of water and the impact on urban areas,” George Eustice said. “We envision paying farmers to store water to be a key part of our policy.”
February experienced double its average rainfall and nearly all England’s rivers reached record high levels in the wake of Storms Ciara and Dennis.
Mr Eustice said flood barriers had played a crucial role in preventing some flooding along the Severn, despite police yesterday evacuating areas of Ironbridge where the river had overwhelmed emergency defences. Residents in Bewdley, Worcs, left their homes as water overflowed barriers.
Rejecting calls for an inquiry into the response to the flooding, Mr Eustice said the Government had “a grip of this situation”. He defended Boris Johnson against criticism over his absence from flood-hit areas, saying his presence would have made no difference.
Another 2-4cm of rain could fall in parts of the country already badly hit, according to the Met Office, compounding the effects of previous floods.
The Severn rose to more than 22ft in Buildwas village in Shropshire yesterday and there were risk-to-life warnings at two other points on the river.
Railway lines into Shrewsbury were closed because of rising water levels, with Network Rail saying the area was seeing a “once-in-a-generation event”.
Another 102 flood warnings and 146 alerts were in place, from the Lake District down to the south coast, with heavy concentrations in parts of Wales, the North East and South West.
The Environment Agency is to unveil a new flood defence strategy that will focus on long term solutions to deal with the changing climate. Emma Howard Boyd, who chairs the agency, said flooding farmland played a vital role in this.
“Government policy is always going to prioritise protecting houses over farmland,” she said.
Poor land management has been blamed for exacerbating the effects of flooding in places. Bare fields, particularly on uplands, can help soil and water flow into rivers. The Environment Agency said some communities may have to be abandoned in the long term which, Mr Eustice said, was particularly the case for coastal erosion.
Richard Bramley, a farmer in Selby, N Yorks, said: “We act as a series of water storage areas basically to protect Selby but the frequency of flooding is getting out of hand. It would be only fair to pay us – we are providing a service.”