Riverworks - A Threat to the River Ribble
People from all over Preston and South Ribble are beginning to realise the danger posed to our homes and to the environment by proposals put together by Preston City Council, South Ribble Borough Council, North West Development Agency and British Waterways.
These are the Riverworks proposals, and include ideas to:
1: build a barrage on the Ribble to create a water sports facility on the Ribble through Preston and South Ribble;
2: build a huge urban development on the Ribble's Green Belt and floodplain - including our meadows and woodlands, football pitches and allotments in Penwortham, South Ribble, and other urban developments on Frenchwood Rec and Fishwick Bottoms in Preston.
This is a map of part of the flood plain of the River Ribble, taken from the Environment Agency's website - Guess where Riverworks want to build over 4000 new houses...
(You can check the flood risk for your own area by going to the Environment Agency's site, and typing in your postcode. When you get there you will learn that "Building in the floodplain can hugely increase the chance of flooding".
On this blog we will be regularly publishing the facts and figures that show how disastrous the Riverworks project could be, to our homes, to our local wildlife, and to the peace and beauty of the local area. Make sure you check back here regularly for updates.
Read more about the building development proposals and the Ribble barrage proposal here.
If you want to join our campaign, ask a question or find out more, please write to 'Save The Ribble Campaign' PO Box 1104, Penwortham, Preston, PR2 0DB. Email: savetheribble@tiscali.co.uk
posted by P @ 7:33 pm
4 Comments:
I have enjoyed the green fields and nature of penwortham since i moved here 15 years ago. I walk to work each day through countryside and farmland. I see woodpeckers, grebes, rabbits, even if i am lucky, the kingfisher. At the weekends i spend time digging on my allotment, surrounded by peace and nature. If this development goes ahead then everything that makes me contented with where i live will vanish.
I fully support this project.
The fields on the Penwortham side of the Ribble are an eyesore. If people in Lower Penwortham under the warped view that they live in a rural area dont like it, they should have thought about it before they moved there.
I fully support the barrage, as does all those I have spoken to that live near me close to the river at Fishergate. Virtually ever day of my 50 years I have crossed or walked along the river. I was born here in a house less than 300 metres from the river and currently live within 200 metres of it. I have no connection with the project and do not expect any finacial gain, just a better quality of life. The ecology is likely to change, as it did when dredging of the channel stopped 25 years ago, but I don't see it as the death of the river, just a new phase in its life.
I haven't yet met anybody living on Broadgate who supports the idea of a barrage.
I wonder exactly how having the water level set so that the river level is permanently high (raising the ground water level underneath our houses), plus having a 'water sports park' on our doorsteps, and a big housing estate built on the opposite bank of the river is going to raise our quality of life?
On top of that we would be losing the allotments and football pitches that so many people from our area use - perhaps the kids who now spend their time playing football at Penny Holmes and Vernons will, in the absence of these facilities once they have been built over, find other things to do around the bus shelters on Broadgate?
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