Recent flooding has been dreadful and I feel so sorry for all the people who have had their homes and businesses flooded.

I believe that a certain amount of money is being made available to home owners and owners of small businesses affected by the flooding but the main problem will be when property insurance comes up for renewal and has the premium significantly increased or even worse refused.

Perhaps now is the time for property owners to be covered by a Government insurance where the property is located on a flood plain or an area liable to flood after sustained heavy rain.

This type of insurance could perhaps be extended to those properties at risk along the east coast due to erosion of the cliff faces by heavy seas and high tides.

When you approach the hairy topic of why the flooding occurred, who if anyone is to blame and what can be done to prevent reoccurance of the flooding, it opens up a lot of contentious points.

Was the flooding due to a rigid interpretation of the EU Directive of 2000 about the water framework where the UK has the final decision to clear water channels (ie.rivers) of silt build up whilst still protecting the ecological health of those rivers or is the UK Environment Agency not carrying out sufficient work or not being provided with sufficient money.

In earlier centuries it was not unknown for land owners to be taken to court and fined for not dredging the rivers that passed through their land.

One scheme of merit I have heard about was an area near Garstang in Lancashire which provided for a holding area for excess water to be diverted from the swollen river upstream and eventually released back into the river when the water level had returned to normal.

There must be other similar scheme elsewhere in the country but more could perhaps be provided.

William Hanes

Crown Road, Clacton