THE recent letter from M & M Kibblewhite of Turnastone was a well reasoned piece with a wider perspective than many other contributors but I have to question their statement about climate change and the prospect of heavy rain in winter and summer droughts...'.

Many other commentators maintain the climate is getting wetter and there will be more flooding but my wife and I live by the river in the city on the north side of the Wye and we have noted that the river comes into our garden far less often now than in the '90s. We cannot remember when the river last visited us but it must be several years ago. The highest point it reached in our garden, in our nearly 16 years here was in October '98 and it has been nowhere near that level since, so we believe there are two kinds of long range weather forecasters - those who don't know and those who don't know they don't know.

Geoff Neale, Vaga House, Quay Street, Hereford.