Does Calderdale Labour really care about flooding ?

Over the past decade Calderdale has been hit with numerous torrential floods, in 2019 Calderdale Council under a Labour administration declared a ‘climate emergency’ [1] According to the council ‘Failure to act will see’ many things including “Extreme changes to our weather and events such as flooding and heatwaves.”, naturally you would therefore think that...

Is the Enviroment Agency missing a golden opportunity to reduce flood risk ?

The village of Mytholmroyd has seen over £41 million spent by the Environment agency on a flood alleviation scheme, that has included raising and rebuilding walls, demolishing various buildings that posed a risk and even widening the river channel. [1] Up river the village of Hebden Bridge is to follow suit with its own dedicated...

When was the River Ryburn narrowed ?

During this ongoing period of isolation and whilst looking at the fabulous resource of old ordnance survey maps of Sowerby Bridge that can be easily accessed online. [1] I noticed something rather interesting, much to my surprise I discovered that a section of the River Ryburn had been narrowed at some point over the last...

Is it time to re-discover the Hebble Brook ?

This morning, yet again a flood warning was issued for the Hebble Brook in Halifax, not quite the first place you would expect it to flood in Calderdale but indeed it does! [1] So just why does it flood so much, up high in the Valley ?  One of the many reasons is that the...

What do we do about flooding in the Calder Valley ?

Storm Ciara has certainly shown that simply by spending millions upon millions of pounds on so called ‘flood defenses’ a farcical term for what is in reality, higher walls clearly isn’t the answer to flooding in the Calder Valley, in particular Mytholmroyd where around £30 million has been spent on just that and a new...