Category Archives: Flooding

Flood inhibition

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SDNPA flooding
Six hundred trees are being planted on farmland in the South Downs National Park to help prevent a repeat of recent flooding and soil erosion.

David Hamilton Fox, who manages the Cowdray Home Farms, in West Sussex, said: “The River Rother in the heart of the South Downs National Park floods most years but this winter has been particularly bad. As well as misery for locals we have lost a considerable amount of topsoil, which is vital for growing crops, and will eventually increase the silt in the river – perhaps leading to more flooding.

More here.

Road & rail flooded

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Road closed
As of 5:16am, the Highways Agency is reporting that the A23 is closed in both directions between the M23 (Pease Pottage) and the A272 (Bolney) due to flooding. Diversions are posted. The Argus is reporting (7:42am) that tailbacks coming out of Brighton are stretching back about five miles with delays of at least an hour and a half. In addition, ” rail services between Haywards Heath and Three Bridges are cancelled in both directions due to flooding in the Balcombe tunnel” and “replacement buses are being affected by flooding on local roads”. More here.

Also the West Sussex County Times is reporting that “the A281 Crouch Hill in Henfield is closed between the B2116 Albourne Road junction and the Deer Park junction”.

Update 11:50am: the A23 has reopened (WSCT). More road news here.

Mayfield Adjournment Debate

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Nicholas Soames attending to constituency business
The Mid Sussex Times reports that:

Mid Sussex MP Nicholas Soames has secured an Adjournment Debate in the House of Commons on the ‘Proposed Mayfield new town in West Sussex’. .. The Commons debate will be held on Tuesday, December 3. Mr Soames’ parliamentary neighbour, Nick Herbert, the MP for Arundel and South Downs, will be contributing to the debate. Planning Minister, Nick Boles MP, will respond. The debate is due to take place between 11am and 11.30am.

The Mayfield Horror

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The Mayfield Horror starring Matthew Taylor
The first public screening on Tuesday proved to be a sell-out: “so many turned up at Oaklands, Haywards Heath, .. that some had to be seated in an overspill room .. and listen on a sound link” (Mid Sussex Times). BBC Radio Sussex coverage of the screening can be found here (top story — interviews with several of the stars) and here. Fans will have to wait a couple of weeks to find out whether this slasher — arguably the best since Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre — is to be allowed out on general release.
GJMG

Update 16th November: The Mid Sussex Leader has published a review (PDF).

Risk area for flooding

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The risk area for flooding in Edburton and Fulking
This post is not a flood alert! But you may have thought that river flooding is something that only happens elsewhere in the locality (e.g., along the banks of the Adur and its larger tributaries). The Environment Agency thinks otherwise and marks a strip of Fulking and Edburton that stretches north from Brook House, via Perching Sands, then west past Lower Edburton and Tottington Sands to Woods Mill. This strip is at significant risk of flooding where ‘significant’ means more than once every 75 years. The Agency’s map has been added to the end of the Local Geology page.

Mayfield versus MSDC

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MSDC District Plan -- Examination in Public

LAMBS urges as many locals as can to attend the hearing.

If you access the PDF of the Mayfield Towns submission and open the ‘document properties’ box in Adobe Reader, you will see that the original file title of the submission is Examination of the Shepway Core Strategy. Shepway is on the Kent coast, not in Mid Sussex. Presumably, for the lawyers and consultants that feed at the bottom of this particular trough, the prose remains the same. It is just the place names that need to be changed. [One of the two entities claiming credit for preparing the document is called ‘Shared Intelligence’. But ‘Copy & Paste’ or ‘Find & Replace’ might have been more appropriate corporate monikers.]
GJMG