'Farmers can plug riverbanks' row

There has been outrage since the Environment Agency announced proposals to use low-lying areas of land close to the River Hull, including land around Leven, Brandesburton and North Frodingham, to protect 100,000 people living downriver in Hull.

The plans came as a bombshell to people living in the area last month, although it has now emerged that officials have been working on them for three years at a cost of £800,000 to the taxpayer. The Agency suggests a few houses in the upper and middle catchments of the river Hull will be affected and several thousand acres of farmland.

But farmers and residents believe that plans to withdraw maintenance and decommission four pumping stations as well as using a vast area at Leven to store water will have far-reaching effects and that the plans have been poorly thought out.

Officials came in for a rough ride when they told more than 300 residents who packed a meeting at Beeford it would be "uneconomical" to continue maintenance around the upper reaches of the River Hull.

Their studies suggest four properties could suffer flooding in the event of a big storm, rising to six if the upper river Hull burst its banks.

There would also be an increase in flooding of agricultural land.

In the middle catchment they will carry on maintaining defences, but want to use 3,000 acres at Leven to store flood- water, reducing the number of properties at risk of flooding from 887 to 23.

If the proposals were to be approved next year the strategy could take effect in five to 10 years' time.

Vicky Patterson, of the Environment Agency, told the Yorkshire Post that while there might be compensation for those who gave up land for flood storage, people whose land flooded as a result of withdrawal of maintenance or the decommissioning of pumping stations would not get financial help.

Landowners would be notified that the Agency planned to withdraw maintenance – and if there was a breach would have to carry out repairs themselves.

Locals told the Agency of their fears that fresh water supplies would be contaminated with sewage from septic tanks if it goes ahead with the proposals

Others insist the land will remain permanently wet – or as one put it: "You can only fill a sponge once if you don't dry it out."

Others questioned the accuracy of data used by the Agency and suggest flooding would be far more widespread.

In the isolated village of Hempholme residents are concerned the only road into and out of the village would regularly be flooded.

The meeting, attended by senior East Riding councillors including council leader Steve Parnaby, voted unanimously for a stop to consultation on the plan, a move which has been backed by the National Farmers' Union.

Coun Jonathan Owen, who sits on the Yorkshire regional flood defence committee, said the council believed the Agency was rushing through the plans so they could be published in time to comply with the EU Water Framework Directive. If they had not intervened the proposals "could have been done and dusted by January".

But NFU regional director Richard Ellison said yesterday it was not too late to get the policies changed.

He said: "For well over a year the NFU and local farmers have been talking to the Environment Agency about their approach to flood management, questioning their fundamental presumption that prime agricultural land can be sacrificed for flood alleviation and environmental schemes.

"With food security now top of the national agenda it is far from clear how this land could be replaced.

"The meeting called for the consultation on the Flood Management Plan to be suspended and said the Agency must go back to the drawing board. We fully support them in this and will do all we can to help drive home the message."