ANOTHER flood, another big money mop-up bill and, with 'proper' protection from a rising River Wye at least two years away, frustration spilled over into anger this week.

Hereford MP Paul Keetch wants the anger channelled toward the Government, offering to send on any representations and opinions to the relevant Whitehall departments.

As last week's waters peaked Mr Keetch was putting Hereford's flood problems to Parliament saying it should be debated in the House.

Floods Minister Elliot Morley - already deluged with postcards demanding flood protection for Hereford - was told during an official visit to India and, on his instruction the Environment Agency's Wye area flood defence manager Ron Clark came to the city.

Mr Clark said the Agency accepted Hereford's pressing case for flood protection, but Whitehall had to make it a priority and it would still have to be judged against others.

Estimates for the scheme envisaged for Hereford - would cost at least £6 million and take up to three years to complete.

But dams and dredging are 'distractions'said Mr Keetch. Both the Agency and the Wye Local Flood Defence Committee back Mr Keetch in ruling out improvements to the Elan Valley dams and river dredging for a flood defence scheme.

The dams have long been cited as a factor in Hereford flooding. In a letter to the Hereford Times last week Bill Adamson, secretary to the Hereford Campaign for Flood Defences, suggested that if the dams had space to absorb heavy rainfall, surplus water could be released at a later date.

Mr Keetch said talk of water release from the Elan Valley dams was a distraction when the Agency had no deliberate policy of releasing water.

Stuart Thomas, chairman of the Wye Local Flood Defence Committee, said the dams made no difference to Hereford flooding.

"They were not built as flood alleviation for the Wye, they were built to supply water to Birmingham."

To incorporate any alleviation the dams would have to be re-built to double their current capacity, said Mr Thomas.

Dredging was seen as being of limited benefit taking inches off any high water mark, at considerable cost.

The gravel might be good enough to sell on, said Chris Chappell, county councillor and member of the Hereford Campaign for Flood Defences.

But he , by his estimates, an initial £1 million spent setting up a dredging operation from upstream of Hunderton bridge to a point past Rotherwas would be better pumped into proper flood protection.

The on-going ownership saga relating to the riverbed, with all its legal costs and implications, would also come into contention, he said.

Mr Thomas raised the environmental issues dredging brought up. And once the river had broken its banks dredging would have 'very, very little' effect.

"It would only lower a flood of last week's depth by about two inches," he said.

The experts advising Mr Keetch told him dredging would be marginally beneficial and would have to be repeated on a regular basis.

"In other words the problem is not the dams and the solution is not dredging. What we need is a permanent, fully thought-out flood protection scheme," he said.