THE proposed flood relief scheme will not work.

It will cost us taxpayers at least £72 million: money which could be much better spent on schools, libraries and care homes in Kendal.

Rather than trying to contain Mother Nature, why not adopt a scheme in partnership with the feisty lady: re-establish water meadows in the Kentmere valley as there were in olden days before farmers drained the land. Heavy rainfall would see these water meadows deliberately flooded and the River Kent tamed.

It is not too late for the Liberals to change their political minds before today’s red spots become tomorrow’s ugly tree stumps.

Tom Pratt

Windermere