The Paul Rogers blog: Apparently Hereford Futures' £4m flood defences worked on Monday. Really? (From Hereford Times)

The Paul Rogers blog: Apparently Hereford Futures' £4m flood defences worked on Monday. Really?

10:38am Thursday 27th September 2012 in Paul Rogers Blog By Paul Rogers

The flooded Merton Meadow car park

SO Hereford Futures want to build hundreds of homes and a link road on the Merton Meadow car park do they?

Well this picture clearly shows that it has a very tough job on its hands in trying to convince people in the city that the location is suitable.

The flooding that we saw in the car park on Monday morning was not meant to happen due to a £4 million protection scheme that was backed by Hereford Futures and passed by council planners in 2009.

We are not talking about a couple of puddles - around 80 per cent of it was completely swamped.

Yet, Hereford Futures stood by the scheme, telling the Hereford Times that it did not fail.

"We think the flooding was due to a vegetation blockage in the watercourse," said spokesman Peter Clasby.

"There was no sign of a blockage in the car park itself."

So, in other words, we think it was due to a vegetation blockage, but we cannot be sure.

And even if it was, does it only take a few weeds to cause a huge city cark park to flood, when it's supposed to be protected by a multi-million pound defence scheme?

And what will happen if hundreds of homes and a link road are built?

Hereford Futures said that Newtown Road did not flood thanks to the Flood Alleviation Scheme (FAS), and posted a picture of the dry road.

That may be the case, but as Roger Williams commented under the picture: "I think all the water is in Merton Meadow car park."