Flooding in Stockport

[Really_here]

Where did you find those photos and what year are they from?

Love that old photo of the town centre.

You might like this

Stockport image archive - Stockport Council

imagearchive.stockport.gov.uk

 

[Johnny Mars Bar]

From here mate.

floods historic stockport 1973 - Google Search

Cool, thanks. Love looking at old image archives of places I know!

 

[Johnny Mars Bar]

You might like this

Stockport image archive - Stockport Council

imagearchive.stockport.gov.uk

Thanks pal, really interesting. Love old image archives.

 

[City Hobgoblin]

Another contributing factor that doesn’t get anywhere near as much attention as it should is moorland peat erosion.

The peat moors surrounding Manchester used to be covered in sphagnum moss which acts as a massive sponge and prevents water running off into the streams and rivers too quickly. Over the past decades this moss has died and we’ve suffered massive peat erosion with water just flowing straight into water courses meaning rivers further downstream overflow.

Over the past couple of years work has been done to restore some of the mosses but there’s a long way to go.

The restoration was funded by the EU I think, so of course that cash will have dried up now.

There is a need to re-forest much of the moorlands and upper courses of river catchments, to reduce flow downstream. There was forest and birch woodland up to about 2000ft before it was cleared for fuel, grazing etc.

 

[Johnny Mars Bar]

There is a need to re-forest much of the moorlands and upper courses of river catchments, to reduce flow downstream. There was forest and birch woodland up to about 2000ft before it was cleared for fuel, grazing etc.

I agree.

Amusing and depressing in equal measure when people look at our barren moors as “wild” places, when they’re anything but. More often than not they’re a scarred, dead grouse factory.

I spend a lot of time on the moors and fells and always imagine what they will have looked like before humans did what humans are best at - destroying nice things.

 

[SiMCFC]

Woman on my street, her garden was completely flooded due to a blocked road gulley. UU came out and unblocked them not the council, she was passed from pillar to post before it happened like, and she fell over in it and smashed all her face in bless her.

UU will (as much as everyone hates them) help as much as they can if resources allow, often unblocking drains that are private etc the stupidity of it is, if they remove any debris from council owned drainage its a whole world of shit to get rid of as it has to be dried and filtered, basically treated the same as solids from effluent as there's nowhere for it to be got rid of, the council's just dump it in the local tip when they do it.

 

[ericpodeofcroydon]

I agree.

Amusing and depressing in equal measure when people look at our barren moors as “wild” places, when they’re anything but. More often than not they’re a scarred, dead grouse factory.

I spend a lot of time on the moors and fells and always imagine what they will have looked like before humans did what humans are best at - destroying nice things.

This. I also spend a lot of time on the Dark Peak fells. Apart from the obvious Grouse, you'll occasionally see the odd shrew/ vole or Lizard and maybe half a dozen types of Raptor.

 

[BrianW]

The Tories spent 13 years decreasing the real-terms funding for councils. This is the effect.

I think it started long before that, in all truth.

Councils have quietly been making cuts for decades. It started when Thatcher told everyone that they could pay less tax and still have the same services. (The gap would be filled by 'efficiencies.') Frankly, if you believed that you were singularly naive. In any case, one man's 'efficiency' is another man's 'cut'.

Councils started by cutting stuff people didn't see. Like baiting sewers with rat poison. That was cut right back, which is why we now have 100,000,000,000 rats. (Real ones, not the ones in rag shirts.) But no one minded at the time. Then they started cutting back on drainage work, sewer maintenance and gully cleaning. No one minded at the time, because it had no immediate impact that the public could see.

It's only in comparatively recent years that they've been forced to cut things that people can see. Like libraries and school budgets. Because they protected these for as long as they could.

This has had a cumulative effect. But the truth is, we've underinvested in sewers, drains and their maintenance for decades, and with the shitty weather we have now you're beginning to see the consequences. And even now, no party will put at the top of their manifesto 'We will spend billions upgrading sewers and drains.' Because it's not a public priority. Well, only for those who get flooded out, and then only for a few months.

 

[KS55]

I think it started long before that, in all truth.

Councils have quietly been making cuts for decades. It started when Thatcher told everyone that they could pay less tax and still have the same services. (The gap would be filled by 'efficiencies.') Frankly, if you believed that you were singularly naive. In any case, one man's 'efficiency' is another man's 'cut'.

Councils started by cutting stuff people didn't see. Like baiting sewers with rat poison. That was cut right back, which is why we now have 100,000,000,000 rats. (Real ones, not the ones in rag shirts.) But no one minded at the time. Then they started cutting back on drainage work, sewer maintenance and gully cleaning. No one minded at the time, because it had no immediate impact that the public could see.

It's only in comparatively recent years that they've been forced to cut things that people can see. Like libraries and school budgets. Because they protected these for as long as they could.

This has had a cumulative effect. But the truth is, we've underinvested in sewers, drains and their maintenance for decades, and with the shitty weather we have now you're beginning to see the consequences. And even now, no party will put at the top of their manifesto 'We will spend billions upgrading sewers and drains.' Because it's not a public priority. Well, only for those who get flooded out, and then only for a few months.

Local gov budgets started on a downward trend during WW1 and have never recovered.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Councils started by cutting stuff people didn't see. Like baiting sewers with rat poison. That was cut right back, which is why we now have 100,000,000,000 rats. (Real ones, not the ones in rag shirts.)

There's only 1.1bn rag rats.