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Thursday, 31 December 2015

Flooding Is Here To Stay!

The floods we have been seeing in large parts of the country are awful. Nobody can deny that. Those experiencing them deserve our sympathy and our help but what can be done to ensure that it doesn't happen again? In my view there is not a lot that can be done.

The water has to go somewhere. There are millions of cubic feet of water now on the ground that could not have been stopped from falling from the skies. That is an absolute fact. Flooding will never be stopped unless control of nature can be had. That is never going to happen. The only thing that we can actually do is to allow the water to flow as it always has onto the flood plains that have been created over millenia by previous floods waers. That is going to be very difficult in some cases as a lot of the flood plains have been built on.

Hundreds of years ago, in some cases thousands of years ago, towns and cities were built on the banks of rivers for good reasons. Firstly, the need to provide water and secondly because the rivers were the motorways of the day allowing easy transportation of people and goods. Those towns and cities have now expanded and are infringing on the floodplains. So should we be surprised that some of our dwellings are subject to flooding? I think not.

I have heard and read an awful lot of comment regarding this issue. One of the main topics appears to be that we are not dredging enough rivers. My view is that the dredging of rivers is really small beer in the scheme of things. Why do I say that? Simply because we are talking about an excess of millions of cubic feet of excess water. Dredging rivers would only allow a small percentage of that excess to remain in the watercourses whilst at the same time allowing the water to move downstream at a much higher rate than it would on a river that has not been dredged. It would carry the water downstream towards our urban areas more quickly and would still require to overspill the banks of the rivers at the same places as now.

What we really need to do is to allow the excess water to drain into floodplains as soon as possible and for those floodplains to be in rural localities. This brings us onto farmland. I hear the cry that if the farmland floods then where are the crops going to come from? This is a bit of a red-herring in the scheme of things for two reasons. Flooding does not necessarily wipe out crops simply because of the reasonably short nature of the flooding events and because of the time of year when floods normally occur, namely the winter months. Secondly, there normally is a surplus of crops worldwide which would allow any shortfall in yield in this country to effectively be made up. Yes that may make foodstuffs more expensive in the short term but we cannot have everything. Rural flooding is the way to go. It is far less damaging and dangerous than allowing built up areas to flood. That is something that needs to be considered and put into place. We need to accept, as I have said previously in this article that the millions of cubic feet of water needs to go somewhere. Fields and open countryside are the best options.

Now let's look at funding of flood defences. I keep seeing and hearing the call for the monies needed to reduce the flooding problem, because we are never going to be able to eliminate it, to come from the overseas aid budget. Why? I have heard the statement that we spend more on flooding overseas than we do in this country. Basically, that is correct but we need to put that into perspective. In other parts of the world, mostly in Asia, flooding is a catastrophe. Unlike in this country where flooding is very rarely the cause of people dying, in other parts of the world flooding takes thousands or lives and causes the loss of tens of thousands of dwellings, dwellings that are not only inundated by water but which are completely destroyed and washed away. Should we be ignoring that? Our overseas aid budget amounts to something like 15 to 17 billion pounds which sounds a huge amount of money but it is only 0.7% of our Gross Domestic Product i.e. the money that is generated in this country annually. Surely if we need to increase our spending on domestic flooding then it will be far easier and more morally correct to find that extra from the £1,500 billion that is allocated to being spent within our shores than the 15/17 billion sent abroad? I think so anyway.

So in summary. Nature sends the water down onto the earth and has done for thousands of years. Nature has found a way for that water to be accommodated on the floodplains of this country. Work with nature to reduce the effects of this flooding in the present day by using those floodplains that are not heavily populated to preserve those that are. Find the money to do what is necessary from the huge amount of money spent within our own borders; there are definitely contingency funds available.

We need to accept flooding as a part of the natural cycle of life and work with the causes of the problem and the natural solutions.

Please note. This article is only addressing my views on fluvial flooding i.e. that flooding from rivers and rainwater standing on the ground. There is also the concern regarding coastal flooding but that brings a whole different raft of problems and solutions.

Thursday, 17 December 2015

Superb New Lidl Store In Skegness Now Open

The long awaited opening of the new Lidl Store took place this morning 17th December 2015.

The new store looks absolutely fantastic. It is the second store in the country to be opened under the "store for the future" banner and it has not disappointed. It is bright, open, spacious and very modern.

By the look of the crowds that have flocked to it today it is going to be a roaring success and I am sure that the free bacon baps being doled out were not all that the customers were there for. Doubt that will be a regular feature of the store! There were long queues getting into the car park at 11.30 am and the store itself was extremely busy. The tills seemed to be coping very well with the amount of customers.

My only slight concern is the reduced number of car parking spaces being provided in relation to those available previously. Hopefully they have done their calculations correctly and there will be a sufficient number on a normal day!

All in all I think this will be the expected boon to the shoppers of Skegness and the surrounding area.

Wednesday, 16 December 2015

Lincolnshire Roads - Dangerous? Maybe not?

I remember reading this piece some months ago.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/11495938/Lincolnshire-has-the-most-dangerous-roads-in-Britain.html

Lincolnshire has the most dangerous roads in Britain. I thought, looking at some of the accident statistics that must be about right. I was involved in several discussions regarding changing road layouts etc. to make the road safer.

Now this bit of news has come out! http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2015/12/lincolnshire-worst-in-the-country-for-drink-driving-crash-rate/

Lincolnshire is the worst in the country for drink driving in those involved in an accident.

So be a bit of a simple fellah I put 2 and 2 together. Have you?

The next person that says to me that the police should not run campaigns against drinking and driving and targeting those that do and should concentrate on catching criminals may get short shrift!

As the old advert says:

Friday, 11 December 2015

3 Up 3 Down From The Football League?

There has been much talk about the present situation regarding relegation from the fourth tier of the footballing pyramid, The Football League Division 2 and promotion into The Football League from the 5th tier of English football The Vanarama National League.

At the moment only two teams are relegated from League Division Two allowing two teams to be promoted from The National League. This does not compare favourably with the promotion and relegation numbers above this level:

  • 3 teams relegated from The Premier League.
  • 3 teams promoted from The Championship and 3 relegated.
  • 3 teams promoted from League Division 1 with 4 relegated.
  • 4 teams promoted from League Division 2 with 2 relegated.
The feeling is that this is an unfair situation and that there is a case for 3 teams to be relegated from Division 2 and 3 teams promoted from The National League. This may well be true but who is making the case for a change? Is the feeling of unfairness enough? How strong is the feeling among The National League clubs that there needs to be change? Has there been any sort of concerted effort from The National League itself, it's member clubs or the fans of those clubs to try and achieve a change? Has there been a case made along the lines of the closeness in standard between Division 2 and the National League? Is that actually the case? In my view, with very few exceptions, there are very few clubs that would be able to hold their own in the Football League. As far as I can see there has been no real effort to achieve change. So, it would appear, much talk but little action? Or is that unfair?

If there was to be real concerted action, what would be the chances of succeeding in achieving the change? I would suggest very little. There is no representation from The National League on the Football League and it is the clubs that make up the Football League that would make any decision. Why on earth would any club in the Football League want to make it more likely that they could be relegated out of the Football League? What case could be put to them that would make them want to vote in that way? It took many years, probably decades, to move away from the old "Seeking re-election" balloting system to automatic promotion and relegation for one team only. Nearly another two decades to move to a two up and two down system. So it is not looking good on that score.

In addition to the natural resistance to any change we should keep in mind that the "parachute payment" received by clubs falling through the trapdoor into "non-league football" has just been hugely increased by The Football League. Financially, those clubs would be big-hitters in the world of non-league football and we all know just how money talks in football! 

So it would seem to me that The Football League clubs, far from being of a mind to make it more likely that any of them would be relegated, have tried to ensure that any club that is unfortunate enough to be relegated have a much better chance of gaining promotion back into the Football League! Does that look like a group that is willing to listen to change? 

There may be much talk amongst the non-league clubs that the present system is unfair and needs changing but in my view there is a million miles to travel to change the system and there appears very little wish amongst the league clubs to see it changed. 

Those clubs now languishing in the National League are just going to have to get on with it and any club with pretensions of achieving promotion need to do so quickly because as hard as it is now to make it to the promised land of League football it is only going to get harder!

Good luck all.








Petrol Price - Well Done The Supermarkets

Fantastic news that the price of petrol has finally fallen below £1.00p per litre. However, given the fall in the price of Brent Crude over recent times it has taken far too long to get to this level.

If the media is to be believed then the oil companies have been "having us over" for long enough. Don't let's get negative about this though as it really is great news.

As this level of the cost of fuel feeds through the economy it should help to ensure that the inflation rate stays at the very low rates of recent times and that means the mortgage rates we pay should stay at their present low levels. Great news.

Finally, a word of congratulations to the supermarkets. They are much maligned in some quarters but in the case of fuel costs they have led the market downward and without them we would not be seeing the low price we see today.

Tuesday, 8 December 2015

Don't Hand Terrorist Their Victories Schools!

I am really saddened to see schools cancelling trips to London because of the terrorist attacks in Paris. Just what are they teaching their children by doing so? 


Do these schools not realise that there are tens of thousands of school children living in London every day and with millions of other people commuting on the underground, the buses, going to museums and living their lives as normal. 


Every time a decision is made not to visit the terrorists gain another victory. Before anybody has a go at me and asks if my daughter should go, her school went on a visit to London last Monday!

Why make our children more afraid than they need to be?

Friday, 4 December 2015

Skegness Lidl - Reopening Date Confirmed

I have contacted Lidl with a query as to when the new store in Skegness is to open. Their reply was 17th December 2015. This is slippage of a week from their original estimate of the 10th December but, given the close proximity to the latest opening date, I would expect no further delay.

Excellent news. From the statistics provided for this blog I know just how much interest there has been in the refurbishment of Lidl, Richmond Drive, Skegness. Like me, it would appear that many, many people have been missing shopping there. 

Well it won't be long now folks!