Common sense on flood prevention is being swept aside | Letters

I agree with John Gummer that the government should use the Housing Act to prevent further developments in at-risk areas. Even as we watch unprecedented flooding taking place in northern counties, planning authorities here in the south are contemplating building on floodplains and their environs. Whatever the pressures for new housing land in the overcrowded south, the move is short-sighted and should be resisted.
Marion Pope
Bournemouth

" Have we unlearned how to manage rainfall once it hits UK soil? Around the corner, there is a new estate built on a slope. Virtually no trees, no grass to soak up the moisture (or for the children to play on), front gardens tiled to accommodate cars. A few hundred metres away, a 1950s estate - front and back gardens, lots of grass in public spaces, mature trees. A new climatic era poses new challenges and demands new strategies - but planners might make a start by refraining from flushing generations of common sense down the drain.
Paul Tattam
Chinley, Derbyshire