Other ways to alleviate flood risks

LETTER - Regarding an article in the Shropshire Star on June 11, page 14, headlined "agency in plea for flood risk defences".

Shrewsbury's North West Relief road should cross the River Severn on top of a flood prevention barrier, with an excavated reservoir and silt settlement sump upstream. Then the River Severn downstream, free of silt, would become self-dredging and flood free.

For the wet season the reservoir should be kept empty, then as Shrewsbury, other towns further downstream and critical infrastructures such as power stations, hospitals, sewage treatment works and water treatment plants, become close to flooding, the excess water can be held back in the empty reservoir.

For the dry season the reservoir should be kept full of water for agricultural, industrial and domestic extraction, water sports, wildlife habitat, river level management and the silt settlement sump.

This project could be part financed by the extraction of top soil, sand, gravel, clay and sandstone. It could include a hydroelectric power station.

Then, after flood surveys and maintenance and a 12-mile U-shaped ring road with 10 roundabouts, Shropshire County Council, Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council, the new unitary Shropshire Council and the Environment Agency, would not have to fiddle, tinker and pose with silt banks by the English Bridge and Welsh Bridge or flood prevention barriers for Frankwell and Coleham Head.

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