Its called 'Witney' not Whitney

Adam, Witney, UK

The absence of regular dredging of rivers and canals will always add to the rise in water levels. Whilst the Enviroment Agency fuss around testing the soils for supposed contamination nothing actually gets done. What is required is old fashioned work on river and canal and less chiefs just talking.

C. Darken, Nantwich, UK

Not true Monkey chops. The floods in Sheffield got a huge amount of coverage- rightly so.

Considering the iconic images of red London buses pushing through flood waters in South West London, London got very little coverage in the national press on Friday.

The towns in Gloucestershire are completely under seige with the real prospect of fresh water suppliers being cut- coverage is justifiably big.

Should also point out that at least one person died near Pershore at the same time as much of the coverage was given to Sheffield. This isn't a North South competition- we're all in the same boat- no pun intended !

I'm afraid I missed hearing about Paris Hilton during the Shefiield and Hull floods !

Luis, London,

I agree with Mark Poxon, Glos. But afraid we are flogging a dead horse. The lobbyist for the building trade and developers will never let it happen. It is quite stupid to build on flood plains. But the greed of these people far outweigh the safety factors.

This, and previous governments never listen to the scientists and engineers that know about these problems. It doesn't produce votes. They would rather give to other nations than take care of there own country. 14 million pounds is pathetic. When you give billions of aid to African despots.

ann, london, uk

How interesting that the flooding now affecting southern & central England is headline news. When this happened "up north" the priority news was the release of Paris Hilton from prison! Sorry for everyone affected but it makes my blood boil.

monkeychops, East Yorkshire, UK

Flood prevention and relief are best taken out of the hands of national bodies such as the Environment Agency. As in the US during Hurricane Katrina, such bodies tend to do little to prevent problems and nothing when a disaster strikes. They cannot react quickly to local problems. We need to give local authorities and emergency services the responsibility, the money and the resources to deal with local problems and list the dead hand of the DEA. It is ridiculous that DEFRA's hopeless bungling of payments to farmers should damage our flood precautions.

frank upton, Solihull,

why are the ditches not mainted /dug by the council? why are'nt the rivers dredged ? l live in a small village with a weir and most of the river Avon! And Evesham ,the bits that are not under water is usually found in Worcestershire. Not Gloucestershire

Tim Hartley, fladbury, worcs

This is clearly the worst flooding since 1947. But this has been compounded by the building of homes on the flood plains. We must now implement must more stringent policies to ban building on the flood plain.

Mark Poxon, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, UK