General Discussion
Does anyone have any updates on when real work will start on excavating the 1000's of tons of sediment, rocks etc from the Brook? I saw the photo shoot earlier in the year were they took out a couple of truck loads of sediment from the Brook. A bit like putting a sticking plaster on an amputated leg.
Walking the dog this morning along the Brook I spoke to a contractor who is working on the new bridge by the cop shop. He said that the council had asked his company for a quote on clearing the Brook!
It's a lot of money. Probably a six figure sum. The council has to sort what causes the problem further upstream first. They are working on it, but there are no quick fix solutions. There are problems dealing with the environment agency, who seem to call all the shots but contribute nothing financially.
In front of my cottage about 2 miles from the Lawns runs the brook and either side are thousands of tons of gravell. At the moment as the brook rises it is being moved towards Dawlish. The whole of the valley bottom is gravel laid down over thousands of years and as rainfall increases more is scoured out by the huge amounts of water chanelled into the valley. To put some perspective on the problem during the 2012 wet summer the brook cut 3 feet into the ground all that waste ends up in Dawlish. The solution clean the brook out more often you will never stop the movement of waste from further up the valley.
The Lawn was never intended to have steps in the Brook. The steps collect the silt when it is calm and as a consequence when there is a flood the water is already higher than it would be if it had not been "sanitised". If there were no steps to impede the flow of water there would be a natural flush which would not only clear the silt but also clear all the other manmade problems such as the beach pollution from the bird that ends up below the viaduct. The retaining walls need building a little higher, probably, so that would be another million the council could invent to put on the books.
De-silting work starts tomorrow (Tuesday).
http://m.torquayheraldexpress.co.uk/articles/news/article/20061908