Somerset flood prevention "auction"

[Steevo]

Just picked this up in an NFU email.....headline sounded promising, yet when reading the detail it sounds the total opposite. They're inviting farmers to bid to do works to "prevent flooding" in a reverse auction....so hoping farmers will work for almost nothing it seems. Each to their own, but at least they are giving farmers the ability to do so.

However.....the aim is to slow the flow from the higher parts of the catchment!

Flood work up for auction Farmers across Somerset are being invited to bid in the county’s biggest auction yet for works to help stop flooding. This year the SRA, Environment Agency, and Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group SouthWest (FWAG SW) are offering farmers a choice of up to seven different methods of natural flood management (NFM). The total available this year is £40,000, the biggest sum yet. Grants from the SRA and Environment Agency will be given to the best, most competitively-priced ideas. The only proviso is that as the main purpose of NFM activities in Somerset is to slow the flow of water down through the higher parts of river catchments, the website will not allow bids for land in low-lying Internal Drainage Board areas, or in areas which drain out of the county. The auction runs from Wednesday 18 to Monday 30 March. Visit the auction website

 

[GeorgeK]

Testing the reverse auction method ready for ELMS. Putting government contracts up for tender and taking the lowest bid works great, just look at Carillion and Interserve

 

[Campani]

Much better for the farmers to design the scheme and come up with payment rates themselves rather than be told by some tw*t in an office what you should be paid. Surely?

 

[renewablejohn]

Think the response from the farmers in the area should be where not interested in your project we would rather set up our own drainage board working with the boards down stream.

 

[teslacoils]

Perhaps the nfu should suggest farmers "unite" and not fight each other over crumbs?

 

[Henarar]

Think the response from the farmers in the area should be where not interested in your project we would rather set up our own drainage board working with the boards down stream.

They came here a few years ago when they started on about the hills to levels stuff and sorted out doing some leaky dams it would have been an easy little job really and a few quid but in the end I didn't do it I thought about it and I don't think it would work so didn't take the money

 

[shakerator]

They came here a few years ago when they started on about the hills to levels stuff and sorted out doing some leaky dams it would have been an easy little job really and a few quid but in the end I didn't do it I thought about it and I don't think it would work so didn't take the money

Is it right the levels haven’t flooded as badly as a result of some dredging being done since the last disaster ? If so there must be some evidence available of before and after rainfall vs flows etc

 

[renewablejohn]

Is it right the levels haven’t flooded as badly as a result of some dredging being done since the last disaster ? If so there must be some evidence available of before and after rainfall vs flows etc

See post 534 on the bring back the NRA thread.

 

[deleted user 837354]

40,000 would pay for a lot of men on very big diggers...

 

[GeorgeK]

40K sounds like naff all when these features will use productive land to store/slow water and last for years or indefinitely. How much flood defense does that build in a town? A few meters? Farmers are getting shafted, if this is the future of ELMS they can jog on

 

[Nearly]

A Dutch auction.

The Dutch wouldn't have anything to do with such a scheme.

A mate has had hundreds of tonnes of soil washed into the canal by flooding from the river.
British Waterways are looking for £2m to dig it back out again and rebuild the lock.
If he was to put a scheme in for £10k he'd be laughed at as too expensive.
Prevention is the way.