Floods
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'Dig in to stop floods threat'
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| John Mastroddi, front, Richard Thurston and Peter Rawcliffe, of the Oxford Flood Alliance, take a look at the area alongside Mr Mastroddi's garden in Kennington |
OXFORD Flood Alliance is urging the Environment Agency to "bring the diggers in" or risk a repeat of last summer's devastating floods.
The residents' group, which is meeting agency officials tomorrow, wants urgent work to be carried out on pinch-points in the city's waterways.
They plan to take the officials on a tour of the Redbridge area to highlight places where they believe work could offer a cheap and practical solution to the floods which hit Oxford twice in six months.
Last month, we reported on the flood plans, which were developed by Mike Hamblett, a land surveyor, after he inspected the city's waterways by canoe.
Peter Rawcliffe, a member of the group's committee, said: "We're looking forward to the meeting. We have identified three main bottlenecks and have told the Environment Agency (EA) that we think these need dealing with urgently.
"Public awareness and expectations are high following floods in 2000, 2003, the July '07 floods, and the January '08 near-miss.
"The situation west of the railway at Redbridge has been known about for many years but nothing substantial has been done. There's a chance to do something now. Inaction would be inexcusable."
The alliance, which was set up last December, believes its ideas would only cost hundreds of thousands of pounds and get results long before the EA could implement its long-term flood strategy for Oxford, which is estimated to cost about £100m.
EA spokesman Maria Goodall said: "It's important that the alliance and other community groups are able to share their proposals with us and the city council.
"We have been working with a number of Oxford flood groups for some time and many of their proposals feature in the measures we're considering in advance of the strategic solution."
The Oxford Flood Alliance said that obstructions in the waterways at Redbridge prevent water from flowing through, causing flooding problems upstream in Botley, Osney and South Hinksey.
Their proposed solutions involve increasing water flow in Hinksey Drain and a field ditch under a single-track access road west of the railway line, close to the old Abingdon Road; building a water channel for Hinksey Drain to bypass a disused bridge close to the Southern Bypass and: widening Hinksey Drain at Kennington and clearing up a water channel obstructed by a wall and clogged up with vegetation, earth and silt.
6:04pm Monday 7th April 2008
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