SIR — I was most interested to read your reports on the flooding at Williton (Free Press February 2).

I am surprised that with Williton's long history of flooding this problem has not been addressed before. It seems it has taken a double disaster in which 50 properties have been affected to spur the Environment Agency into action.

But I am sure that the residents of Williton are not too impressed that it will be years before a flood alleviation scheme will be constructed.

I would suggest that before further flooding occurs, some temporary measures are taken beyond the obvious removal of vegetation debris from the main watercourse, the Monksilver stream.

The weir on this watercourse at Orchard Wyndham just west of the village could be adjusted so that in flood conditions some water is diverted north towards Mamsey Bridge on the Minehead road. This bridge was recently reconstructed so that a greater volume of water would pass beneath it.

There is scope for substantial retention ponds in the field between the river and the bridge and in the land north of the bridge.

Negotiations would have to take place with land-owners and tenants but where this land is used for grazing there could be a way forward, provided appropriate compensation is paid to the land-owners/tenants.

I would anticipate that subject to agreement in principle between parties that a few days' surveying, design and a few weeks' excavation and reseeding could see the work completed for a cost of probably between £20,000 and £50,000, a sum less than the cost of flood damage to properties in High Street and Robert Street. Excavated material could be disposed of by tipping on the sacrificial cliff near Doniford Beach.

I understand that a greater sum has been earmarked for a flood relief scheme at nearby Woolston where a handful of properties are subjected to flooding from a minor watercourse that drains into the Doniford stream.

This scheme which involves the construction of flood storage and work to the culvert is unnecessary as the flooding problem could be resolved simply by deepening the open watercourse at the east end of the hamlet and improving the entrance to the culvert which passes beneath front gardens of the houses in Woolston.

Indeed, in general much flooding in the district could be avoided if the flow carrying capacity of watercourses were increased by removal of silt and debris from these watercourses. This would not be a costly exercise, certainly less expensive than flood relief schemes, which eventually will require maintenance anyway.

The Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (MAFF) is the government body which gives approval and provides the grant aid for flood relief schemes whether they are put forward by local authorities or the Environment Agency. I would suggest that if the residents of Williton wish to see their flooding problems resolved sooner than later that they make representations to MAFF.

After all, in 1990 when several properties in West Street, Watchet, were severely damaged by storms, within a year a remedial scheme was designed and implemented at a cost of over £1 million with substantial grant aid from MAFF.

I do wonder sometimes whether all the elaborate procedures, reports, computer studies are truly beneficial to the public. In the distant past the problem would have been surely solved by an army of willing workers, armed with picks and shovels. Today professionals, engineers are often more concerned with covering their backs than carrying out their work with conviction.

David Thomas,

(Retired civil engineer),

Yarde.