Video transcript: different viewpoints – Roy
More than one solution needed

Q:  Do you think the flood defences are a good long-term solution, or should we be looking at other solutions as well?

Roy:   I think flood defences and the construction of them – the capital schemes – obviously do help where the existing problems are.  We are dealing with historic problems here, so it’s urban developments in the flood plain.  Longer term what we should be looking at is developing outside of the flood plain, and looking at the whole catchment approach, and that’s what we’re doing now in the Environment Agency.  We are developing a Catchment Management Plan, which tries to deal with the problem, if you like, at source, rather than where the problem actually lies in those developed areas.