The park's still flooded and looks like a lake. Where there should be football matches and children playing on the swings canoeists have been spotted in their place again on there over the weekend. The river's still high. If you drive over the Medway on the A21 the flood barrier looks to be holding the water back but the whole area is just surrounded by a vast quantity of water. The Environment Agency seem to be doing a good job of controlling the flow of the river. Whether they got it wrong on Christmas Eve is another question. Will we ever find out the truth? Tonbridge Rugby Club have erected a marquee on the car park, as a temporary clubhouse and I noticed on Saturday that they were showing the international match in there. I must say though it didn't look that full; probably people preferred the warmth of the fire at the George and Dragon or the camaraderie (and the beer) at the Punch and Judy and the Chequers Inn and who can blame them? Slade School, I'm told, had their boiler room out of action for a short time because of flooding but are very relieved not to have been hit worse than they were. Being so close to the Hilden Brook and the river someone was looking down and smiling on them that day. Or was it simple geography?! Shops in the south end of the High Street are still clearing up the mess and the Post Office opposite the Angel Centre has all the floors up and dehumidifiers blasting out (or do they suck? maybe both!) giving the place a sort of third world like quality. They could even be mistaken for the Superdry shop in Tunbridge Wells! Mr Books is okay so far but if the Castle floods then we're in trouble but I've a sneaking feeling that those Normans, when the built the stone structure, which has lasted nigh on a thousand years, knew what they were doing. A lady who lives in Yalding told me that her house is on slightly higher ground than most of the village so she managed to escape the floods, but only just. According to her the water level was even higher than the 1968 floods which so devastated Tonbridge town centre. More floody updates as they come in. Please feel free to use this as a forum by commenting below....
2 comments:
You are right of course TB, about the castle, and the same applies to other old buildings in the town. Our ancestors were much more circumspect when it came to siting their houses and other important buildings. Many factors would also be taken into account, apart from choosing somewhere likely to remain dry. A sheltered, and preferably sunny aspect was particularly important, as was somewhere which would provide good solid foundations, and decent drainage.
Unfortunately we have forgotten these basic principles, in our rush to cover everything with concrete, and have also developed an astonishing degree of arrogance in thinking we have tamed nature and are immune to the weather.
Sometimes nature bites back, and it has certainly done so with a vengeance this winter! There's not much more I can add apart from offering my sincere condolences to all those homes and businesses which were affected by the flooding. It's no comfort to them for me to say that it could have been a lot worse, but by and large the Flood Barrier does seem to have done what it was designed for. Let us hope then that these storms and associated deluges will soon abate and we get some decent dry and sunny weather to cheer us all up.
Hopefully the government will keep its promises to give grants of up to £5000 to domestic households that were affected by flood to pay for flood prevention work. Looking around the internet barriers for front doors can be found for £350 upward with fitting cots to be added and there are even systems for air brick protection for £80. So a lot of properties could be protect for less than £1000 and quite a bit more to protect patio doors and garages.
On the commercial note I see that Morrision's are still looking at the old SEETar site which they own in Vale Road and claim they are taking their time to plan for flooding etc.
Maybe its all part of the game of bluff to make the proposed Sainsbury's development non viable. It would certainly be attractive from the parking point of view.
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