Flooding in East Yorkshire
I’ve just been watching the flash floods in East Yorkshire and there is more here on the BBC web site.
It looked like a modern housing estate was flooded. Was it built on a flood plain as many are? If so surely, the stupid council, who gave planning permission, should pay for the damage. And what about the architect, who created beautiful brick car parking spaces that just prevent the water soaking into the ground and just channel it into the houses.
These little boxes should never be built without a proper flood assessment. After this, they’re probably uninsureable anyway.
In the same report on the web, it says that a Tesco in York had to close because the roof started to leak. If it had been a green roof with perhaps grass on it, the problem might not have happened. If Adnams can do it in silly Suffolk, surely everyone can. Here are the reasons for a green roof from the design brief.
To reduce the visual impact of the building.
To reduce heat transfer into the building and to regulate the buildings core temperature.
To reduce water run-off and burden on drainage.
That all seems logical to me.
The roof incidentally was built by Sky Garden Greenroofs. I wonder how many Tescos and other supermarkets have green roofs? I think in the UK, one Co-op does.
Shoe Sizes
The very pregnant news mother, Kate Silverton, on BBC Breakfast, was complaining about getting stylish shoes for her size 9 feet.
As a man with size 6 feet, I have the same problem, but I’ve always found it possible to buy them in Newmarket. And they’re British made too!
Thames Water Can’t Win
There is a big row brewing in London about the Super Sewer that will run down the middle of the Thames.
The problem isn’t about foul water, but mainly about heavy rain causing problems, when it overloads the current system, which then causes foul water to be forced out onto the streets and into the Thames.
When I went down the sewers, I was given a presentation on the Super Sewer and totally understand that something must be done.
The question is what.
Some things don’t help.
London had 55,000 sewage blockages last year. Many are caused by inappropriate things, like chip fat, disposable nappies and general rubbish being put down the toilet. I’ve been told and not by Thames Water, I should add, that in tower blocks some residents are too lazy to walk down with their rubbish and use the toilet instead. There was also the notorious fatberg in Leicester Square outside a fast food restaurant.
Thames Water has launched a Bin it – Don’t Block it campaign.
There are also lots of people who have concreted over their front garden, which means that the water now runs off immediately.
You could argue that if you have a concreted front garden, then you should pay an extra drainage rate. I have a small patio between my front door and the road and wouldn’t mind paying a charge on a pro-rata basis. I also have a mature tree, which I think is a hornbeam, between the patio and the road, which might be bad for my hay fever, but it soaks up an awful load of water.
My Roadside Tree – A Hornbeam?
On a similar tack, new buildings should have plenty of green space and trees. But often this restricts the places to park cars and other vehicles.
Those that object to the Super Sewer use two main arguments.
The first is that it might not work and the second is that it will cost too much.
But most of the opposition is just the usual Nimbys, who don’t want construction near them. How many of these peple use disposable nappies on their babies? We never did in London, as in those days of the 1970s, there was still an affordable nappy service, where clean nappies were delivered regularly and the dirty ones taken away. The trouble is today’s parents are seduced by advertising. They may be all for saving the whale and the tiger, but when it comes to stopping sewage blockages, then that is not their problem.
So what do I think should be done?
Obviously, we first need to stop the blockages. This is mainly a publicity problem to get people to change their bad habits. If they won’t then more draconian solutions like the banning of disposable nappies and extra water taxes on fast food restaurants will be pushed for and might have to come in.
One idea I’d like to see tried is a SewerCam on the Greenway, showing what was going on beneath their feet in the Northern Outfall Sewer.
Thames Water have the start of a private museum at the old Abbey Mills Pumping Station, but where is the London Museum of Water and Sewage?
New technology has a part to play too.
On the Olympic Park all of the toilets and grass watering is going to be fed from recycled water, in part taken from the Northern Outfall Sewer.
Are London’s many parks kept green in the same way. I suspect many just use mains water, which just adds to the problem.
Surely someone could come up with a small water purification plant, that uses water collected from say housing estates to water the nearby parks.
We should also stop the covering of gardens with concrete and decking and make sure that all new buildings reuse all of the water they collect on their roofs.
But I’m afraid that if we use all the tricks we have available, we will probably need to put a Super Sewer under the Thames.
Bagpipes: Love Them or Hate Them!
I am actually fairly ambivalent about bagpipes. Partly because I’m a bit deaf on the street where I might hear them, but mainly because in London, you might see all sorts of musical buskers, but I can’t remember seeing anyone, Scot or not, playing pipes in the last few years.
So I was surprised to see that Edinburgh is stopping shops playing loud bagpipe music.
On the other hand, in one of C’s offices in Ipswich, a piper decided that outside her window, was the ideal place to play the one tune he knew. The barristers were thinking about taking out an injunction, when the council imposed the standard Suffolk solution. He was run out of town on a rail.
An Odd Problem With Zopa
Because a lot of people repay their Zopa loans on the first of the month, when the first is at a weekend, these payments get delayed by the banking system by a couple days and I worry that something has gone seriously wrong, as money hasn’t arrived. I just checked and tomorrow is a very big payday – We need to have 28-day months to sort this problem out.
Or I could stop being paranoid.
The Man With The Artificial Heart
This is definitely the good news story of today.
From what I can gather, the recipient is now able live a much more normal life until he can get a heart transplant.
My late wife, C, died of a squamous cell carnimona of the heart. It just grew in her heart and strangled the life out of her. She just lived only a few months after the diagnosis.
I got the impression at the time, that if she had been younger then they might have tried a transplant. But I also know that if it had been offered she would have said no!
But after today’s news, if I was in the same state and they offered me an artificial heart for a few month’s life, I think I’d take it. In fact, I sometimes think that if by having the operation I had a high chance of not making it, but would help to advance knowledge, I’d take that risk. It might be better to die under the knife, than suffer a long-lingering death.
Not that this mongrel is thinking of going yet! There are too many windmills at which to tilt!
Do The Swedes Know Their Left From Their Right?
Why is it that if IKEA are going to drop somebody in it, then it’s me?
This morning the decorator came and painted the cupboard in my spare double bedroom. A month or two ago, I bought a set of Stolmen interior wardrobe fittings from IKEA. So this evening, I decided to put the two drawer cabinet together. As I always do, I cbecked that everything was there and the first part went together very well.
A Half Completed IKEA Stolmen Chest
In the picture you can see the frame of the chest and the two drawer fronts, ready to accept the sides and back.
But then I noticed the deliberate mistake that I’d missed when I checked the contents.
Four Identical Drawer Sides
The four drawer sides were all for the left, instead of two being left and two being right.
I have informed IKEA, but I might have a problem, as I’m probably outside of their return time, as I ordered this furniture in February. But surely one of the reasons you buy flat-pack furniture is that it is easier to store until you need it. I’ve also thrown all of the packaging away.
Is This The Real North-South Divide?
Sathnam Sanghera is one of my favourite columnists. He wrote a piece called, Not on the right track to get the UK moving, saying that it was training that the West Midlands needed and not trains.
In some ways I agree with him, but we actually need both. This bit from his piece stood out.
Nothing, not even the fact that some London bars charge £18 for a cocktail, shocks my fellow Midlanders more than the fact that I have never owned a car. Most families in my parents’ suburb seem to have two or three vehicles per household. Getting them to use a train instead is going to be more difficult than weaning them off pork scratchings.
I’ve come across this attitude before. I have even been accused of being a loser because I travel everywhere by public transport, by an idiot from Middlesborough.
I’m afraid that some parts of the rest of the country are going to have to do a lot of readjustment, when the oil runs out.
Keith Madeley MBE
I have received spam from someone claiming to be this guy and a company called HoneyPot mail. As my reputable spam filter marked his message as junk mail, I binned it. I suggest you do the same.
He might be a genuine person or he could just be a very bad e-mail marketeer. After all, I couldn’t find an unsubscribe on the e-mail, which is against the ICO rules.
The Anonymous Widower 