Although the pictures of flooded Somerset are distressing, there is equal distress at the closure of the B1040 across Whittlesey Wash.
It’s all very well to talk of a King’s Dyke bridge but quicker and cheaper solutions are needed now.
The Dutch seem to know how to do it as shown by their companies supplying the pipe, pumps and expertise in Somerset.
I just wonder if the Dutch could help us in Cambridgeshire as Dutch relatives and friends of mine have seen pictures of our floods and cannot believe the road is closed. They are just ordinary people and have already suggested raised roads, flumes, sluices etc.
We’ve been helped by a Dutchman before, remember Vermuyden?
Also notable is the lack of offers of help from our alleged friends in Europe.
I’ve learned two sayings from my Dutch family: “It ain’t much if it ain’t Dutch,” and: “If you buy
a new workman’s shirt in Rotterdam, it comes with the sleeves rolled up.”
JOHN REDDING
Viking Way
Whittlesey
Via e-mail
Past achievements could help today
I noted your sensible article about the flooding at Welney, (February 7).
It reminded me that, some years back when visiting my father-in- law in Derbyshire we went to a place called Swarkestone, which is famous for being the most southerly point Bonnie Prince Charlie reached in 1745.
There they have an elevated causeway which was built in the middle ages and takes the road over a large area of ground that is regularly flooded.
The length of this causeway is not dissimilar to the road at Welney washes.
My point is that, surely, if this could be achieved hundreds of years ago, to alleviate the same problems being experienced by villagers at Welney today, it should not be beyond the ability of local or national government in the 21st century.
I suggest that the county and district councils examine their reserves to see how this could be funded.
GORDON DOCKETT
Quaker Lane
Wisbech
Via e-mail
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