Geograph - photograph every grid square

Tewkesbury Philip Halling, with Maisemore and Sandhurst, the Avon confluence and the general reach of the Severn just above the present day main tidal silt estuary it would seem suitable for the Government to put in a flood cut that could be used for grazing but transfers extra upstream flood spate to that estuary rapidly, not to encourage further flood plain development but to ease the problems that occurred in recent years as cases of flow extreme. This with the prospect of shutting out very high tides with the Barrage proposals current it may be possible to ensure tide and flows do not coincide, keeping high tide out while the basin fills with flood. As the Wiltshire exec' said small ponds may help local sites but they do not affect main rivers much so in the case of Severn some substantial containment reservoirs would be needed to contain high headwater flows as well as some land use alterations. People have been deriding flood storage for decades, it does work and a small loss of 2 inches 5cm to 1 foot 30 cm on the receiving river makes the difference between flood and drainage. That and some urban drain improvements plus the simple process of new construction on raised ground. Barriers help and the existing weirs could be better improved, but in the case of Gloucester the City has two drain routes and one cannot utilize one to ease the other causing inner City problems, so a flood cut relief which works in the USA and Eastern England seems just sensible. Throughput is the issue and it is the pace of disposal that matters in all events. It is a simple grader operation with a few physical structure alterations.