First step towards flood work

Congratulations to the Environment Agency. At last they have started work on the sandbanks blocking the arches of both the English and the Welsh Bridges in our town centre.

The recent removal of the bushes and saplings has made a positive and welcome contribution to the visual environment around our bridges.

Each year the saplings have increased in size and the bushes spread further along the riverside and into the river itself. This plant growth stabilises the sandbanks, which become more secure and spread further along the banks.

We have watched the gradual and continuing spread of these sandbanks, so that they completely block the arches and affect more of the riverside.

The inevitable result will be a reduced flow of flood waters through the bridges and the consequent build-up of flood waters above the bridges, increasing the flood dangers and affecting more properties.

With the threat of the withdrawal of flood insurance from properties at risk of flooding, such worsening of the flood risks constitutes a serious worry for property owners and developers.

So I hope that the removal of the plant growth from the sandbanks by the Environment Agency is just the first step in completely removing the sandbanks.

It would make it easier and less expensive to monitor and manage any such return of the sandbanks. And most importantly the risk of worse floods in the future would be reduced.

Alan B Shrank, Shrewsbury