07:00 - 21-July-2008
Plans drawn up by the Environment Agency to manage flood risk on five rivers in the region include proposals to use low-lying agricultural land as “water storage areas”.
This means in times of flooding and heavy rain, parts of the countryside would be used to hold flood waters from nearby rivers and streams.
Maintenance of flood defences would be withdrawn and land that frequently floods would be submerged, in a bid to protect property and other areas from being hit.
The Environment Agency has yet to identify specific areas of the county which would be used to create storage areas, but land around Beverley and the surrounding villages, including Tickton and Skirlaugh, and the Market Weighton area have been earmarked for feasibility studies.
John Lund is a livestock farmer at Coneygarth Hill Farm, Emmotland, near Driffield, where 100 acres of land were submerged during last summer's flooding and in January of this year.
He said: “We do not want our land to be flooded, we came here to farm, not open a boating lake.
“If areas of land are constantly flooded it would become virtually useless. There would be little you could do with it.
“If they did flood certain areas there would have to be compensation to those farmers whose land would be swallowed up.”
The idea of water storage areas has angered East Riding Council.
A report to the council's cabinet states: “While it is understood priority should be given to the protection of property and infrastructure, the loss of significant swathes of some of the most valuable agricultural land in the country will be seriously detrimental to the well being of affected farmers and damaging to the East Riding's economy.”
The council is also calling for top-level talks with ministers about the proposals and have raised concerns they only have six weeks to look at the plans before they are approved.
Neil Ryan, technical specialist at the Environment Agency said: “A Catchment Flood Management Plan is a high-level policy document setting out a framework for managing a river's catchment over 100 years.
“The council may not have seen the documents which are now before it but has been consulted extensively during their preparation.”