Blame the Council

In some cases the complainant will be correct in that assertion but in other instances the council becomes the fall guy or scapegoat because of the need to identify someone responsible for what has happened.

This week's flash floods provide an interesting case in point. A week's rainfall fell overnight, almost a normal month's total rained down over the week, and mountains of water came swilling down on Ilkley from the moors.

Parts of Ilkley were flooded, and worried people turned on the council - or more specifically its drains and ability to clear gullies and water courses of natural debris and human rubbish - which people are effectively nominating as the principal cause of flooding. This is a point which will certainly need investigating, for Ilkley prides itself on the unspoilt moor and its maintenance is supposedly regarded by the council as important.

However, it should also be borne in mind that this week's weather has been freakish, to say the least. Was it reasonable to have expected the council to have foreseeen such fearsome weather and legislated for it?

On the other hand, whether it is the result of global warming or not is irrelevant. What the council does need to do is examine just how much a possibility that changing weather patterns are going to make monsoon-type conditions more common in future and lay down plans accordingly.

Last year the council cleaned out all the gullies in Ilkley, an impressive achievement which merited (but didn't get) appropriate praise. If becks and streams are blocked and exacerbating the flooding issue, then it will need to do a similar exercise on them. Then who will be to 'blame'?