PRESS RELEASE: CLA Response to the Great Ouse Catchment Flood Management Plan

Abandonment of flood defences, coupled with a more natural approach to flood management could result in some of Britain's most productive agricultural land in the Cambridgeshire Fens reverting to uneconomic flooded meadows.  The process must be reversible so that this vital resource can be brought back into production if necessary in the future, maintains the Country Land and Business Association (CLA).

In its response to the draft Great Ouse Catchment Flood Management Plan (CFMP)* the CLA says that with changing climate altering the pattern of crop production across the world, more land is likely to be needed in future for both food and grown fuel.

"It would be disastrous if we could not pull this land back into production – especially those areas which our forefathers invested in so heavily to bring into production in the first place," says Jane Burch, CLA regional adviser.

"If land is to be inundated with water – as the Great Ouse CFMP proposes – we must be able to reverse the process if future demands on land use alter.  If inundated by saline water, land is unlikely to be returned to production, so a great deal of thought and planning needs to go into deciding which areas can be sacrificed for flood management activities."

The plan covers 860,000ha of eastern England, stretching to the Wash from Brackley in Northamptonshire and encompassing the great Fenland areas between Cambridge and King's Lynn. It has implications not only for farming, but for economic activity and environmental protection too. In particular the CLA is concerned about maintenance of current flood defences and river channels and is calling for a more holistic approach to tidal and surface water flooding.

"While the CFMP recognises that much of the area covered by the plan is rural and that agriculture and tourism contribute significantly to its economy, it is not clear how these have been valued in comparison to urban properties when assessing the cost-benefit of future flood management activity," says Mrs Burch. 

"Economic losses sustained when commercial properties are flooded and longer term costs such as rising insurance premiums, have not been adequately taken into account.  Nor does it adequately value infrastructure - roads, utilities, etc - and the losses sustained when they are disrupted.

"The need to protect groundwater for irrigation from saline intrusion has not even been mentioned.  This is critical to both water companies and agri-food businesses."

Maintenance of flood defence.  The plan recognises that tidal flooding and coastal protection have significant implications for the area south of the Wash, much of which is below sea level. In addition the Wash Shoreline Management Plan will be critical to the plan as it is likely to delay a proper holistic and sustainable approach to flood risk management. "It is therefore vital that current defences and pumping stations are maintained and rivers kept flowing," says Mrs Burch, "otherwise options for the future will be limited and flood risk increased in the short-term. This is especially so because more natural flood management will take time to achieve in practice due to the many constraints identified in the plan.

 "It is crucial to maintain existing flood defences to current standards, whilst looking at ways to enhance them through holistic and natural methods. Equally critical is the need to fully consider surface water and sewer flooding.  When flooding occurs the public and businesses don't distinguish between the various types.  How can saline, surface and sewer flooding remain outside the scope of a holistic Flood Management policy?" 

 

For further information:

Jane Burch, regional adviser CLA                     01284 789201   Mobile: 07870 573548

Sally Smith, CLA PR                                            01553 764422   Mobile: 07729 448046

 

Notes to editors

The CFMP is a policy for catchment-wide flood risk management over the next 50 to 100 years available from the Environment Agency

 Full text of the CLA response to the Great Ouse Catchment Flood Management Plan is attached as well as a map of the Ouse catchment area