The Environment Agency and partners propose a flood alleviation scheme for Oxford including an experimental 3.5km-long excavation into natural meadowland.
The applicant’s drawings tabulate 1800 spot heights showing that the bed of the proposed channel is pretty much the same as the existing channels, it is the meadow alongside that is being lowered.
So why? The EA assure us the excavation is not for volume compensation; also a `no channel' alternative gives equal or lower flood levels where they compare like-for-like; and in habitat-creation the excavation performs worse than what we have now. A fishery is the obvious driver, but the anglers say that stripping existing trees is unhelpful, losing shade for all fish and tree-roots for young fish to hide amongst.
In parallel, the scheme will be building two road bridges where its own consulting engineer says that one bridge would be `much more elegant'; it directs nearly one third of the Thames flood flow against the side of the main line railway that was not necessarily built for this; and it degrades its own performance by putting an embankment round ten hectares of useful flood storage in New Hinksey.
The obvious way forward is for the November Public Inquiry to permit the scheme but:
- Replace the 400 thousand cubic metres excavation with a corridor that uses only electric fencing to avoid trapping flotsam, OR pumped pipeline;
- Require a single road bridge, saving three years in construction;
- Require a flood viaduct at the railway, protecting residential Kennington, Kennington Ponds and the railway itself;
- Require a low wall along the Abingdon Road to protect 10ha of flood plain.
Otherwise the Scheme is spending flood budget on degrading national infrastructure, money that could benefit flood risk communities elsewhere in the country.
But common sense does not always get a hearing at public inquiry, so the Hinksey and Osney Environment Group (HOEG) and partners are mounting a crowd-funding appeal to have legal representation, and readers can donate here ( https://gofund.me/c8aa1297 ).
Brian Durham
Grandpont