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July 28, 2007
Newsnight
Yesterday we had the Channel 4 team setting up their equipment in the Abbey so that they could broadcast "Newsnight" live from the Abbey. At the same time we had the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall touring the worst hit areas of the town and it was encouraging to hear the very positive comments from those introduced to him - especially in a Labour constituency.
How different then the approach of the Channel 4 team to their carefully selected panel. Some, like the Bishop of Gloucester who cancelled another engagement to be there, weren't even given time to talk. Nor was our Chiuef Fire Officer whose people had performed almost superhumanly for the last week. Instead they obviously tried to stir up a "blame game" and I am very pleased to say that they failed. It probably didn't make for exciting TV, but it was good to see the Environment Agency and the Severn Trent Water representatives actually being supported by the two Mayors and the victims.
The problem here was that the water levels rose so rapidly that there was almost no warning and certainly no time to implement the flood defence plan. Thos parts of it that were implemented worked well and the post disaster recovery plan is also well on track. The damage at the Myth Water Treatment plant has to be seen to be believed. It isn't just a case of flood water in the tanks and filter beds - the gantry and the intake pumps - a pair of really massive submersible horizontal pumps which normally sit 12 metres above the Severn - are gone. The river took them and their gantry. So what are the Severn Trent people doing?
Well, they are not just trying to rebuild the pumps, they are also also creating some new links between the Tewkesbury and Gloucester reticulation system and those adjoining it. This is how they have managed to get water back on the Tewkesbury system within six days. This morning they are extending that to the Bishop's Cleeve and north Cheltenham area and I have absolutely no doubt these guys will get water back on to the rest of Gloucestershire within the fourteen days they originally estimated.
Finally, in what must be the first occassion such a thing has happened, the Church Missionary Society branch in Niarobe, Kenya has contacted our Bishop and wants to send aid to those affected by our floods. A Bavarian Friewieligerfeuerwehr has contacted the Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service anbd offered its pumping vehicles and twenty-five firefighters and an Aid Agency also based in Germany yesterday delivered 80,000 litres of bottled water and 10,000 litres of bottled apple-tize drinks for distribution to children ....
What can one say? How different to the attitude of the media and the Westminster politicians whose only interest seems to be to find someone to blame so that the finger cannot be pointed at them.
I think that I prefer the attitude of our Town and Borough Mayors. Praise the work they various agencies are doing and have done - and then let's pull our community together to get back on our feet as quickly as possible. You cannot blame someone for the speed at which this flood arrived and we certainly cannot blame the Water supplier for the loss of a plant built by Whitehall in the 1960's on a flood plain, albeit the same plant was built above the level of the highest previously recorded flood.
It was an interesting experience watching the filming of the programme last night and I have to say that the participants displayed the best of the Tewkesbury spirit in responding.
Posted by The Gray Monk at July 28, 2007 06:21 AM
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