Foolish remarks on the cause of flooding

WHAT utter foolishness for Ben Goldsmith (English financier and environmentalist) to recently tweet that “overgrazing” by upland sheep farmers was responsible for the devastating floods in south Wales – rather than the recordbreaking torrential rainfall we have experienced – according to a national newspaper he takes the view that getting rid of sheep farming would allow scrubland and forest to develop in the hills, helping to absorb floodwater.

What an absolute nincompoop, and three cheers for Gareth Wyn Jones (BBC farming programme presenter) for dubbing Mr Goldsmith a patronising, privileged individual who should be ashamed of himself.

Indeed, the ignorance, arrogance and hypocrisy is breathtaking when taking into account the many thousands and thousands of trees that have been felled in Wales to make space for ineffective large wind farms – felling trees in such places as the Brechfa Forest to make way for wind farms is truly Alice in Wonderland stuff.

Regarding absorbing heavy rainfall, wind farms have been erected on the moorland catchment areas of where many rivers rise, and in doing so replaced absorbent peat grass and forestry with non-absorbent concrete, tarmac and hard shale – such intelligence!

Therefore you do not need to be the sharpest pencil in the box to realise that these, the wind farms, will have contributed to flashflooding downstream.

No doubt the unfortunate flood victims of the Welsh Valleys, Hereford, Shrewsbury, Ironbridge, Worcester, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, and elsewhere in the UK will not warm to Mr Goldsmith’s banal remarks – an ovine outrage!

Dave Haskell Brithdir, Cardigan