Dulwich park

[shelly2012]

Anyone no what they are doing in dulwich park near the playground .

[spider69]

Wasting lots of money

[Burbage]

There are signs, and there was a consultation, and there are bits on Southwark's website to explain it.

But, in short, some floods in 2004 caused the owners of houses in and around Dulwich Village to put in insurance claims of over ?1m. This has, as you'd expect, raised the premiums considerably, to the utter distress of everyone.

To relieve this distress the Council and Thames Water have, between them, decided to donate around ?4m of the spare money we've paid in taxes and water bills to a Grand Scheme of Flood Defences, with the aim of turning the Park into a swamp when it rains, rather than letting the rainwater gurgle down the hill and frighten the rich folk.

As far as I know, the insurance industry has not offered any financial help, presumably because the claims are no more than a historic blip on their radar from which they're handily profiting. Thames Water has been more generous, but as it's them that are doing some of the work, they can probably afford to be generous. Besides, a tax-deductible donation to a community project looks good in a way that fixing drains, especially drains that haven't flooded in a decade, doesn't.

[spider69]

And the park that you knew and loved will change to appease the greens.

Look to the local drains and sewers. As if

[Earl Aelfheah]

Ha! Good summation Burbage

[StraferJack]

"The greens"???

[sandyman]

On the news the other day they said it was a drainage scheme to prevent last summer's catastrophic floods in Herne Hill happening again. Cant trust those damn lefties at the BBC can you.

[JDR]

Weren't the floods due to a burst water main?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-23598335

[Townleygreen]

It seems to me that this is a very sensible scheme that will benefit lots of people in the area - preventing much flood damage.

OK, currently it is a pain in that parts of the park are out of bounds...but long term, it is a benefit.