HOT on the heels of the July planning meeting which approved the designs for the new Roman Road Livestock Market, came a joint ESG-Council announcement of a major civil engineering scheme to the north-west of the city. This is the diversion of flood waters in the Yazor Brook, which is to be re-routed via a 1.4km-long underground pipe into the River Wye.
Planning approval still has to be given and regional funding for the £3.5-million operation is being sought. The scheme’s promoters are confident that it will virtually eliminate any risk of the Livestock Market’s site flooding, as well as providing protection for the ESG site to the south.
Most surprising is the very precise figure, included in the Press announcement, of £2.76-million which the engineers put on the ‘savings’ from flood damage to houses in the Edgar Street area. This contradicts a figure given by ESG Chief Executive Jonathan Bretherton to the Herefordshire & Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce journal, where he boasts of “a saving of over £5-million in after-flood clear-up costs”.
To amend the famous observation of Benjamin Disraeli: There are lies, damned lies and ESG statistics’.