Councillor Stuart Thomas and his Environment Committee should be congratulated for the timely repair of The Stank, thus ensuring the security of Hampton Bishop.

They were, in my opinion, correct to give priority to the threat to Hampton Bishop over the proposal for flood relief at Hereford City. Although I appreciate the understandable concern at the consequent delay in alleviating the flooding at Hereford, I hope consideration will now be given to a more sustainable solution at Hereford than has been proposed hitherto.

The only means of effectively directing the forces of nature is to work with them; it is fruitless, in the long-term, to try to oppose them.

It is impossible to prevent the River Wye from flooding but it is possible to control where it floods. A bypass channel or other means of speeding the flow of the river past the city would only pass the problem further down-stream; it might even result in negating the work now completed at Hampton Bishop.

The natural and sustainable solution to the problem at Hereford would be to regulate the flow of the river some distance upstream of the city at one or more locations where flood plains are already active and of sufficient area to store the surges of floodwater.

I hope the promised feasibility study will take a broader view of the problem. This could well lead to a more economical, as well as a sustainable, solution with no detrimental effect on locations downstream of the city.

Derek Colley, Fownhope.