All floods of properties are man-made, the result of mans' actions, or their lack of action:-
1. Housing development being allowed on land that has a past history of flooding.
2. Houses built close to rivers, becks and the like, which subsequently have not been properly maintained, i.e. not kept clear of silt or debris.
3. Sewerage systems not meeting the demands placed upon it, generally by the authorities connecting more drained land to old systems not designed to meet the present-day demands.

First, let us remind ourselves of the type of drainage system in operation. The combined sewerage system which consist of pipes taking the flows from foul water sources such as toilets, sinks, washing machines and the like, and from surface water sources such as roads and roofs, have inbuilt into them a structure of "combined system overflows" (CSO), which are designed to divert excess flows during very heavy rainy weather into a nearby watercourse to prevent flooding in houses or on roads downstream of the CSO.
The pipes taking the excess flows into the CSO, and out of the CSO into an adjacent watercourse or water surface water system, were NOT designed to take the present day flows emanating from a wider area than when they were originally laid. Subsequent housing developments, resulting in more land being drained, have been connected to the original system. Instead of reconstructing an entire new sewerage system, the authorities have gone for the cheaper option of allowing the newly drained land to be connected to the existing sewage system albeit with some minor, if any, modification to the existing CSOs.

Having said that let us turn our attention to the problems in Filey arising from the heavy rainfall which started late on the evening of Friday and continued non-stop until the early Saturday morning, when from around 5.o clock that morning the system became over stretched and flooding soon developed, spreading into many houses in various parts of Filey. A lot of nonsense has since been said that the flooding was unique, thereby inferring that it would not happen again. One councillor said," What we must bear in mind is this was a freak incident". What rubbish. The cause of the flooding was man-made. There have, for some time, been obvious signs that a disaster was waiting to happen, but more about that later.
The flooding was the result of mans' actions, or to be more precise the result of the actions of the local authorities. They had up to that day got away with the consequences of their allowing continuing housing developments in Filey without seeing what the effect could or would have on existing services. Their concern seems to be getting in extra council tax revenue from additional properties without providing the remedies to the problems those developments have on local services, whether it be traffic problems, medical and dental provision, sewerage services and so on.

The housing developments of the past forty years and more in Filey have led to more land being drained, which has been connected up to a system which was originally laid in Victorian times and has had no more than a tinkering to it since. Forty years or so, i.e. before the housing developments on land outside the old town, the combined sewerage system would have coped with that amount of rain that fell on that Friday/Saturday without much to do. The undrained farmland and wasteland on which subsequent housing developments have occurred, for example the Wharfedale, the Pastures, and the Scarborough Road estates, would have retained any surplus water as a flash flood and the water would have drained slowly over matter of days. So it should come as no surprise that the now drained land causes extra demands on an old Victorian system.

The flooding occurred because the drainage system failed to take the rainwater away effectively. The cause of the floods was, therefore, the inadequacy of the system in existence not the heavy rain. Not convinced? Well let me give you a couple of analogies: - If your central heating system sprung a leak and damaged your carpets would you blame the water or would you realise that the system had a faulty and act to cure that fault? If the water cistern in your toilet overflowed would you blame the water, or would you realise that there was a fault that needed rectifying?

I mentioned earlier that there have been warning signs that the present system was not far off being over stretched. Let me elaborate a little. Whenever there has been a spell of prolonged rain, or a heavy short thunderstorm, or where there has been a quick thaw of snow, you can see in Filey surplus water spreading over quite a number of roads where the roadside drains have filled and overflowed. Whenever you saw this surplus water, you did not need to be an expert in drainage to appreciate that only a little more water would have caused an overflow onto the nearby properties.
The worst examples of this that I have seen on my limited travels around Filey during wet weather are:-
Wharfedale Estate.
Leyburn Place - the two drains at the entrance to this cul de sac soon overflow with a spread of retained water across the entrance.
The East entrance from Muston Road - several of the drains on the West side quickly overflow spreading water down that side of the road.
Muston Road
The drain on the East side of the Clarence Drive/Muston Road junction is the worst, or the quickest, to overflow. Only a relevant short spell of rain causes it to overflow on to the road.
Even during a dry spell you will see, if you look down through its grate, that the level of the retained water is not too far from the top and realise that it wouldn't take much extra water to reach the top of the drain. Anyone who has previously noticed this would not have been surprised to learn that the houses nearby were amongst the worst to be flooded.

No doubt other readers awakened by my comments will look back and recall that they too have seen other examples of drains overflowing in their area after a normal spell of rainy weather.

These were, and still are, examples that all is not well with combined sewerage system in Filey, which can only get worse with the threat of more flooding if something is not done to remedy the problem forthwith.
The decision of the Scarborough Borough Council to allow a further development of 137 houses on the Pastures Estate, which has been highlighted on previous editions of the Soapbox, with the resultant sewerage and drainage coming from that land, will add extra demands onto the already overloaded system and will increase the risk of more incidents of flooding.
If the experts are right in their prognosis about "global warming" and that we will get more rain, and therefore more heavy rain, in the future, then the risk of similar flooding occurring in Filey is greatly increased.