YOUR readers may recall the shock news in June that a flood alleviation scheme for Pickering had failed at the 11th hour.

Costs soared from £1.3million to £3.2million overnight due to compliance with massively over-engineered standards set out in the Reservoirs Act to withstand a 1:10,000 year flood event.

The original suggestion of a series of simple small upstream bunds (dams to temporarily store flood water) had typically been turned into a more highly engineered scheme by the Environment Agency (EA), which was destined to fail.

Now, the only feasible and affordable way to protect the oft-flooded town is to return to the original simple concept, which would remain outside the scope of the Reservoirs Act due to limited storage potential of each dam. But it needs a “can do” attitude.

Despite the firm backing of the community, MP, DeFRA Minister and most multi-agency partners in the ‘Slowing the Flow in Pickering’ scheme, the EA and Natural England (NE) seem reluctant to proceed due to “significant planning and environmental challenges to be overcome” – a suitably vague and imprecise cover-all.

Perhaps the knowledge and expertise for such low-cost simplicity no longer exists in some of our heavily bureaucratic government agencies. Maybe it’s time to turn back the clock.

We have now had almost three years of civil service progress on the bunds, ie all talk, no action. It was intended as a ‘pilot project’, so how about some simplicity, compromise, sensibly managed risk and action? Prof Stuart Lane, one of the UK’s leading flood scientists, worked on the original Pickering study. At a recent gathering of some of the world’s most esteemed flood academics in Switzerland, he was amazed to find they knew all about the trials and tribulations of the Pickering scheme.

It appears to be regarded as ground-breaking well beyond our own Yorkshire coastline, with the potential for similar methods worldwide being followed with interest. What a national embarrassment it would be if the EA once more walked away and left the town to flood in peace. Are we really too clever, technologically advanced and tied up by red tape to build a simple bund or two? One day, that protection may save lives otherwise lost in the maelstrom, not to mention the huge cost of every flood.

Mike Potter, Chairman, Pickering & District Civic Society (P&DCS) Ryedale Flood Research Group (RFRG)