ALTHOUGH one feels sorry for the people whose homes were flooded by the freak storm last week, I'm not sure it is fair for the residents to blame their misfortune on "the council."

Perhaps it's easier doing this than believing it was an Act of God. It was probably more likely to be an Act of Man, however.

What we may have experienced when we received a month's rainfall in one evening was a freak weather event, perhaps one of the first signs of climate change - a result of the burning of fossil fuels and the production of carbon dioxide from driving cars and so on.

Global warming is resulting in the atmosphere being able to hold much more water that eventually falls as rain.

I believe that Warndon Villages, in particular, suffered because of the way the estate has been designed. That land not occupied by housing has been covered by service roads and parking areas for cars.

Because these materials are impermeable, the rain was unable to soak into the ground and instead washed over the surface, eventually flooding living rooms.

Many homeowners have made the situation worse by covering their gardens with decking.

If heavy rainfall is likely to become more common in the future, as scientists predict, then we should all play our part in slowing the effect, by reducing the amount of miles we travel by car, for example, and by recycling our wastes.

BRIAN ELLIOTT,

Worcester.