Published: Thursday, 26th February, 2009 12:00pm

Deep trouble if we ignore these warnings

by Newsdesk

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DOOMWATCH-style warnings - on topics from global warming to the harmful side-effects of a variety of popular food and drink - are an almost daily occurrence.

Many of them can be taken with a large helping of salt, but our report today that the potential for major and devastating flooding puts us in the Thames Valley on a shortlist of Realistic Disaster Scenarios, should be taken very seriously indeed.

The insurance experts at Lloyds of London put Reading at the centre of a 194 square kilometre area where they reckon the bills for damage in a worst case scenario - mainly to residential property - from the River Thames could run to £6.2 billion.

While the banking crisis means these days we blithely shrug off the notion of losing even trillions of pounds, £6.2 billion is a lot of money and insurance men rarely display much of a sense of humour.

In this area there are still devastated families waiting to move back home after the floods of July 2007, and only this month we have seen further evidence of the chaos and distress that came with the almost routine flooding at the Loddon Bridge Park-and-Ride.

It can be no coincidence that sprawling Lower Earley - once reputed to be the biggest housing development in western Europe - occupies swathes of once lush meadowlands in the River Loddon catchment area. Up the road at Winnersh the 2007 floods were horrific for a number of families and even now Sindlesham remains soggy for much of the year.

Yet still developers, aided and abetted by a Government eager for quick solutions, search hungrily for green belt sites on which to build thousands of new homes.

Attempts to build on Kennet Meadows just north of the M4 in Reading have been rebuffed for now. But how long before the Government caves in and expediency wins the day?

Nature created flood plains for a very good reason and we would all do well to remember that.