IT gave me pleasure to read the letter regarding Severn flooding from DA Pountney in the Kidderminster Shuttle.

While people are parrot-like repeating phrases about global warming and blaming their everyday activities for causing it, it was good to hear from someone who struck at the heart of the problem - lack of dredging.

When in flood, an average river will flow at seven miles an hour or more. A dredged channel of two metres deep by four wide would rid the area of an extra 5,000 gallons per second. But in order for this to happen, all obstructions to the flow, such as built-up beds of clay silt, would have to be removed.

The only way to ensure the job is done properly would be to have the river beds properly surveyed.

With the modern equipment available these days, this would only take a few months, then work could start.

If nothing is done, rivers will be increasingly inclined to flood owing to the thousands of tons of silt that each previous flood washes into them.

The political parties are desperately trying to blame motorists for these problems because roads, like rivers, have been neglected for 30 years or more and will soon become impassable unless they are widened or the users priced off the road.

LEON MANZI

Whittall Drive West, Kidderminster