Last week's poll: Flood mitigation

The Northwest of England and Southern Scotland are experiencing flooding resulting from severe weather conditions, despite flood defences being reinforced following similar floods in recent years. With which of the  following statements do you most strongly agree?

With large areas of the Northwest still suffering the effects of last week’s floods and warnings still in place for heavy rainfall, there are obviously no easy answers for what can be done to prevent such events or to reduce their effect. We had 461 responses to last week’s poll, with the largest group, 21 per cent, thinking that attention needs to be focused on defending towns from floods and preventing high water levels reaching residential or commercial areas. Two options both recieved 22 per cent of the share: One stated that the floods are evidence of climate change; while the other stated that there was no practical ways that defences could have prevented the flooding. The option stating that the previous defences were ill-conceived and poorly funded received 18 per cent of the support, while just 6 per cent thought that there was no reasdon to believe flooding would continue to be a frequent occurence and that several events over the past decade where just bad luck.

Please continue to send us your opinions on this subject.