Amongst the recent floods, there is a story from Pickering which is giving hope to the towns and villages which were affected. Pickering has been flooded time and time again but this time remained dry due to a new, cost effective flood defence called ‘Slowing the Flow’.
Following a series of devastating floods, spanning from 1999 to 2007, two Pickering & District Civic Society members waded in with Oxford, Durham and Newcastle Universities and hit on a winning solution to flood prevention. By working with nature they developed a way to ‘slow the flow’, storing water upstream to prevent it flooding the town.
Last year the ‘Slowing the Flow’ scheme won the Civic Voice Design Awards, Judges’ Special Prize. Although it was more of a civil engineering project than public realm scheme, the judges felt it was worthy of a special prize, calling it “an outstanding achievement for the society, who should be incredibly proud.” The judges felt that the scheme sets a precedent in presenting an innovative way of looking at the landscape as infrastructure and has huge potential to be replicated across the country in other flood threatened areas.
It’s fantastic to hear that the hard work, determination and leadership of Pickering and District Society and partners has paid off in the particularly awful recent weather. Well done!
Although a great flood defence system like Slowing the Flow are available, many have hinted that even a these would fail if houses are built on floodplains. A new petition has been created to call a stop to all building and new developments on known floodplains.
The petition is accessed by clicking the link below.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/117037
10,000 signatures are needed before the government responds to this petition and 100,000 signatures before the petition is considered for debate in Parliament.
