Those poor people across the country over the past few days. The worst September storm for 30 years has brought floods, devastation and misery to hundreds, if not thousands of homeowners, primarily in the North of the UK.
York has just seen it’s second highest flood, with the river Ouse topping out at 5.06m higher than it’s normal seasonal level. It brought floods to parts of the centre which have rarely seen such bad weather. York gets flooded regularly, but if they’re saying it’s bad then you know it’s worse than normal!
Further North it gets worse. Remember those flats which stood precariously on the concrete stilts because the immense amounts of water washed the foundations away? Well those are now having to be demolished after they have been up only a matter of months. Some more council houses next to it are also having to be demolished as they have also been left unsafe.
One thing that got my brain ticking over while looking at the terrible scenes in York was the buildings that were flooded and the windows and doors on the properties. Now I can’t know for sure if the buildings in the centre where it flooded are listed or not. I am tempted to say yes as I couldn’t see a single PVC or aluminium window or door in sight. But with storm proof windows and doors now easily available on the market, wouldn’t it be worth dropping those listed laws and let the owners of the properties fit better protecting windows and doors?
York and other places like the river Aire in Leeds flood on an all too regular basis, causing millions of pounds worth of damage in the process and major upheaval for families and businesses. Is it really worth going through all this nearly every year, just to keep poorly constructed, old timber windows and doors, just for ‘the aesthetics’ of the building? I’d say no, and I’m sure pretty much everyone else would agree with me!
Not that organisations like English Heritage would listen to common sense like that! What is important right now is the places like Boroughbridge, York, Morpeth and other flood hit places get their clean-up operations in full swing and get back to normality as soon as possible, and hopefully before Christmas!