River Lugg Decimated.

[mikench]

.................and rightly so. Farmers have a lot to answer for in my experience.

 

[steve2]

While agreeing that what happened here should be looked into there are far worse thing happening to rivers every day and no one bats an eyelid.
They are being over abstracted straighten for flood prevention and used as dumping ground for waste.
There was petition recently about the dumping of foul water into rivers very few anglers signed it.
So why get so upset over this bit local river landscaping.

 

[theartist]

While agreeing that what happened here should be looked into there are far worse thing happening to rivers every day and no one bats an eyelid.
They are being over abstracted straighten for flood prevention and used as dumping ground for waste.
There was petition recently about the dumping of foul water into rivers very few anglers signed it.
So why get so upset over this bit local river landscaping.

Agreed but that apathy shown in waste dumping petition thread is a green light for this sort of thing to happen again and again, the more apathy the more we get dumped on. The Lugg has problems with this sort of landscaping, more so than other rivers I feel judging on my few trips up there, can't do any harm to have a rant about it, what good it will do in the long term is anyones guess but it's good that this has been highlighted, it might just make someone think a bit harder about doing similar to it in the future. The only good thing is it's really visible so can get public attention, like you say there's worse things going on, more underhand but can we seriously look at a river like that and not get upset?

 

[mikench]

I voted.

 

[bullet]

 

[mikench]

Its a non beauty spot now.

 

[John Aston]

I won't be joining any lynch mob until the full story is clear but I do hope the people responsible for the vandalism are found and punished.
This sort of thing used to be common , usually effected by statutory authorities in the mistaken belief that it was for flood alleviation .

My club had half a mile of trout stream destroyed (graded banks, trees ripped out , bed scraped ) in the mid Nineties by the farmer run local Internal Drainage Board . I think , in general, times have changed but back then , despite my stream being habitat for kingfisher , natural crayfish , wild brown trout and grayling , and otter(then very rare) the NRA and English Nature were powerless (NRA) or couldn't even be arsed to reply. After sending a complaint to the IDB , our landlord terminated our annual licence as we were just a bunch of 'moaning fishermen '.

I shudder every time we get floods - the usual local suspects witter on about some lost golden age when 'all the rivers used to be dredged ' - err, no they didn't. Sadly , one of those usual suspects in the last floods was the Rt Hon Rishi Sunak - who may be good at doing big sums but knows sweet FA about rivers .

 

[Keith M]

I wonder how many villages have been built over natural flood plains over the years, and how many villages downstream have suffered floods because of the misguided straightening and dredging of rivers upstream, and why the continued misguided building on flood plains still continues?

Keith

 

[mikench]

I doubt that the carnage created by Farmer Giles will make one iota of difference if we have another storm and significant levels of rainfall. I don’t understand why he didn’t just clear the river of debris and fallen trees if they were the perceived problem. If floods occur the locals know who to blame. Often the problem is just kicked down the road ie downstream.

 

[steve2]

I wonder how many villages have been built over natural flood plains over the years, and how many villages downstream have suffered floods because of the straightening and dredging of rivers upstream, and why the continued misguided building on flood plains still continues?

Keith

The reasons for building is the land is flat and they are allowed to. I read a few years ago that most flood plain building was turned down till it got to
ministerial level where it was passed. Then of course the taxpayer picks up most of the bill for flood prevention measures.

 

[mikench]

I lost count of saying to clients thinking of buying a house on a flood plain that the vital clue was in the name FLOOD PLAIN: walk away. Some did some didn’t .


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[no-one in particular]

I doubt that the carnage created by Farmer Giles will make one iota of difference if we have another storm and significant levels of rainfall. I don’t understand why he didn’t just clear the river of debris and fallen trees if they were the perceived problem. If floods occur the locals know who to blame. Often the problem is just kicked down the road ie downstream.

In the article he claims that is all he did, clear trees that had come down in the previous flood, third paragraph half way down although there is a contradiction in what he said. However, he is not a vandal at all, the article makes this clear and he claims the villagers and council were on his side after the environment agency did nothing despite several pleas for them to do so. He owns the land and lived there all his life so he took the responsibility on himself. Not that I agree with him or on his side but his side of the story is a lot different to some of the claims made in this thread.

 

[theartist]

Trouble is (looking at that article) that were are going to be the losers in all this, (when I say we I mean the river itself and the fish welfare etc) Looks like he was being a martyr and doing what the residents wanted, or at least that's his angle. The EA could stomp in an do the same or worse, I doubt very much any potential flood victims nearby would be singing to our hymn sheet.

Like others have said the EA have done worse in the name of flood prevention, what could have been a precident in bankside destruction could be another fillip for the EA to go carve up some more rivers somewhere in the country so that the locals don't have to do it themselves

 

[108831]

The problem comes that,that stretch of river will take around a decade to recover from the farmers assault,the river authorities used to do the same on the Gt Ouse above Bedford,bank erosion when this river floods will cause major issues with no grass,or vegetation to hold the loose soil together,but no bu99er seems to give a monkeys....

 

[bullet]

I fish various stretches where the Farmers sre prone to a bit of "river gardening", usually tipping rubble in on bends to try and stop erosion.
At best it's a waste of time, at worst it makes the erosion worse, with the river cutting in behind.

 

[mikench]

Vandalism is a noun meaning action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. I maintain he is a vandal. It's clear from the photos he didn't just clear the river but he certainly cleared the banks of all trees and vegetation. I reckon those bare soil banks will swiftly disappear once the river is in flood.

 

[rob48]

Seems the EA agreed the action to deal with flooding issues, including removing fallen trees and reprofiling the bank, at a meeting with the Parish Council and wrote to them to that effect, including passing the responsibility on to them.
The investigation they're now carrying out should make interesting reading.

 

[Molehill]

Could turn into a game of pass the parcel, see who is left holding the toxic parcel when the music stops.

 

[xenon]

Seems the EA agreed the action to deal with flooding issues, including removing fallen trees and reprofiling the bank, at a meeting with the Parish Council and wrote to them to that effect, including passing the responsibility on to them.
The investigation they're now carrying out should make interesting reading.

Someone is b++++++++++g then-they cannot both be right.

 

[sam vimes]

See my post in the EA thread. I can well believe that one element of the EA would allow this to happen while another element of the EA was blissfully unaware. Such is the lot of large organisations with multiple departments that have different goals and remits.