NorthernDave
Never used Über Member
- Location
- The real Northern Powerhouse
Without wishing to be glib about it, the Aire along Kirkstall Road has flooded before and has frequently come within centimetres of topping it's banks where it has flooded this time the problem is each time very little is done about it and we're told it's a once in 100 years thing. If it wasn't for the economic downturn, that area would be covered in hundreds of new homes on the former dairy / bus depot site as there were plans for a new "urban village" there. When those plans were published the flood risk was repeatedly raised only to be fobbed off with excuses that it couldn't happen there.
The river through Leeds city centre is a known pinch point and used to be much deeper - the environment agency website states that the 'normal' depth range now is just 0.6m to 1.35m at Crown Point (shallow enough for most people to wade across, if they were daft enough). When it was used for commercial traffic it was dredged a lot deeper. My dad used to talk about seeing the dredgers from where he worked on The Calls and how during the summer the river level often dropped to become a channel in the middle with mudflats visible on either side - that doesn't happen any more.
There is currently a plan underway to increase flow through Leeds by making Crown Point weir and the next one down (Thwaite Mill?) moveable so they can drop them completely and release the floodwater downstream before Leeds City centre gets flooded (Good luck in Methley, Castleford and Allerton Bywater when that's finished).
Anyway, fortunately the heavy overnight rain seems not to have materialised and we look to have a day or two without any significant rainfall, so here's hoping that the levels drop before the next lot arrives midweek.
The river through Leeds city centre is a known pinch point and used to be much deeper - the environment agency website states that the 'normal' depth range now is just 0.6m to 1.35m at Crown Point (shallow enough for most people to wade across, if they were daft enough). When it was used for commercial traffic it was dredged a lot deeper. My dad used to talk about seeing the dredgers from where he worked on The Calls and how during the summer the river level often dropped to become a channel in the middle with mudflats visible on either side - that doesn't happen any more.
There is currently a plan underway to increase flow through Leeds by making Crown Point weir and the next one down (Thwaite Mill?) moveable so they can drop them completely and release the floodwater downstream before Leeds City centre gets flooded (Good luck in Methley, Castleford and Allerton Bywater when that's finished).
Anyway, fortunately the heavy overnight rain seems not to have materialised and we look to have a day or two without any significant rainfall, so here's hoping that the levels drop before the next lot arrives midweek.
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