Here in the Roden Tern river area there has been no maintenance done since the NRA finished. The rivers are shockingly neglected . Even my neighbouring farmers dont do anything. I do drag fallen trees out about once a year but I think I am the only one who does, One of my friends works for the EA and he says the level of apathy and incompetence is scary.
If it was going down the river faster the surrounding land would have more absorbing capacity so yes will still get flooding but not as prolonged , I think grass and wheat will survive short periods of being submerged , but much longer and becomes a vicious circle with marsh type land it just becomes inert and life less like a puddle on a hard road . Back flowing is the problem , I known them put the sluice gates in at the mill in flood to save residential areas but this is pointless if the flood plain is already full of water as the river just reverts to its natural course .
Most of it is from the rotten vegetation that hasn’t been cleaned out properly for years
