Calls for back-to-nature flood reduction schemes

More imaginative schemes to help prevent flooding should be considered and promoted by the government, engineers have said.

The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) say schemes to slow river flow and cause floods upstream cost a fraction of conventional flood walls - and should be spread round the UK.

Pilot projects have involved felling trees into streams to slow down the flow, and building earth banks to catch run-off water and allow it to soak away.

Roger Harrabin reports.