Flood Alleviation News - Important Please Read
Attenborough Flood Alleviation Alliance (AFAA)
Environment Agency Ignore Community Views Again!
At last the Environment Agency is proposing to apply for planning permission for the Trent Left Bank Flood Defences in October. We in the AFAA welcome this as we want flood protection for all as soon as possible. However, it appears that the EA has continued to ignore public opinion with respect to the proposed route through the village.
Despite overwhelming opposition of visitors, residents and users of the Village Green the application will still include a flood wall along The Strand in Attenborough. The wall, over 2 metres high when viewed from within the Village Green, would replace the existing hedgerow alongside the Green. The wall would be made to seem less high from The Strand by raising the road level by half a metre with hedge and perhaps tree planting on the roadside of the wall (something the EA have in the past said was not feasible). There are a number of other changes to The Strand itself, which are suggested as improvements, but would further take away its informal, rural character and turn it into a series of chicanes, bounded by raised curbs. The raising of the road level and these latest incidentals would only worsen the damage to the Conservation Area and are akin to re-arranging the deck-chairs on the Titanic. The EA is still refusing to accept the crucial point that a much less damaging alternative route is available to the south of the Village Green, on the edge of the spoil filled Fisherman’s Car Park.
In a sensitive Conservation Area it is vitally important to strike the right balance and not build the defence along a line that causes permanent damage to the village it is designed to protect; and excludes the Village Green and its assets from protection. The permanent impact on conservation, ecology, rural outlook and sports & leisure amenities need to be balanced, as do the temporary but very real impacts of construction. We feel that the Environment Agency underplays the damage of a wall along The Strand, whilst exaggerating the sensitivity of the Fisherman’s Car Park route and the supposed constraints of law and policy which, they wrongly claim, preclude such a route for the defences
Thus AFAA will continue to oppose the Agency’s present proposal as long as it includes the nonsensical and insensitive route through the village. It is clear that this approach has the support of many of you as the AFAA already has 250 individual members including residents, users and regular visitors plus group members from the Attenborough Village Green Association, Football and Cricket clubs and School - and we all ask for common sense to prevail.
The Environment Agency is belatedly inviting interested parties to a meeting on Monday 15 September 2008, from 7.30pm - 10pm, at the Village Hotel, Attenborough. This is hardly likely to be “a consultation” and is likely to be the EA telling us what they intend to do and allowing us a say on some minor dressings. However, we urge you to attend to find out more about the EA proposals and to ask why the views of so many people are not being considered.
We would also ask you to re-affirm your support of the AFAA’s stance by e-mailing our Secretary at garysw@supanet.com or leaving a message on 07860 311412.
PLEASE SHOW YOUR SUPPORT & ATTEND THE MEETING ON SEPTEMBER 15TH