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The Jubilee River story - 5 January 2003 - Letter to Telegraph and others

When I wrote this letter the water was still rising.....................

Fax to Telegraph

020 7538 6455

Letters to the Editor

                                                                                    5 January 2003                     

                                                                                    Ewan Larcombe

67 Lawn Close

                                                                                    Datchet SL3 9LA

                                                                                    Tel       01753 544302 (home)

                                                                                                01784 483045 (work

Dear Sir

I suspect that you will be inundated (an appropriate word in the circumstances) with letters about the Jubilee Flood.  By the time you read this letter, there will have been a lot of water under the bridge, so to speak!  The 'gin and Jag' residents of Maidenhead and thereabouts may even have the flags out having avoided flooding due to the use of the new flood relief channel.  The Environment Agency could even be claiming that the Jubilee River has been totally successful in alleviating flooding in the Windsor, Eton and Maidenhead areas.

For those people upstream of Datchet who have benefited from the expenditure of the best part of £100 million, I ask you to spare a thought for those people downstream that have suffered.  Before you mothball your Wellington Boots, to be used only as a fashion accessory or for ceremonial occasions, ask yourself where the water went that would usually have flooded you?

In 1992, I remember the National Rivers Authority repeatedly stating that the proposed flood relief scheme would have negligible impact downstream.   Apparently their computer modelling supported this claim.  Furthermore they then refuted suggestions that any flood problem would just be moved from one place to another.  I think the facts speak for themselves, and the Environment Agency now has a lot of questions to answer from the people of Datchet and downstream whose properties have been damaged.

In the meantime, maybe the operation of the Jubilee River flow control structures should be independently managed!

Yours faithfully      Ewan Larcombe ('Disgusted of Datchet')