Progress made but flooding still big issue for Shrewsbury

One of my earliest jobs working at Shropshire Newspapers - and still some of the most fun I've had - was standing knee-deep in filthy water while cars got stuck and people still struggled to go about their daily lives writes Dave Burrows.

But I wouldn't want to do it again.

The GREAT FLOOD of 2000 was, for a still relatively young reporter, just that. Great. I didn't mind working through the night. I didn't mind the wet. Or the cold. Because it was exciting.

But I didn't have my own home, or business and my journey to work was still quite straight forward. But for hundreds of others, that flood - and others subsequently - brought nothing but misery and cost them thousands of pounds. If something like that hit again, I'm sure my view would be very different from the one held by 20-something me.

I was thinking that the other week as wind and rain brought more misery to the county. My main thought was: 'These reporters don't know they're born' - especially as the flood barriers were going up in Frankwell. In my day we'd have been interviewing shoppers walking along gangplanks or jumping into boats to get into town, while waiting for the Prime Minster to fly in so we could ask him what he was going to do about it (and my old chief reporter Pete Johnson would have been whipping off his trousers to wade into the office and sit there in his pants).

But, as marvellous as the flood defences are, we should be wary of thinking its job done. Let's face it, last week was a storm in a teacup compared to 2000. or 2002 for that matter. It was little more than a damp squib. Last February we had a proper amount of water come down the old Sabrina and that DID cause problems. Roads (my own included) and car parks were closed and parts of the town were cut off.

Our MP Daniel Kawczynski this week said flooding is still the single biggest issue affecting Shrewsbury's growth and prosperity. That might be simplifying the town's problems a bit, but there is no doubt more still needs to be done. The fact that Frankwell car park had to close so the barriers could go up is surely goes into the minus column. Mr K says more needs to be done to improve the flood defences and wants people to speak up when Question Time comes to town next week.

But, as well as recognising there is work to do, let's give praise where praise it due. Love or hate Twitter, the social networking site proved its worth last week. Hats off to whoever was doing Shropshire Council's tweeting, as the number of updates on road closures, car park situations, river levels, etc was incredible. It seemed to me that the second a lorry was sent out with a 'Road Closed' sign, a tweet whizzed through cyberspace to let us all know. A few retweets later and even women with plastic boobs in California (don't ask me why they follow me) knew where they could and couldn't go.

So good progress has been made then. But, as Daniel would have said if I was his speech writer, anyone who thinks that's that must be wet behind the ears.

See also:

• Flood barriers put in place in Shrewsbury