THE Longford Estate/St Nicholas party seek to present their bid as something beneficial to Salisbury rather than an opportunistic move to secure a large sum of money for themselves.

In fact the whole of their proposition rests on the Environment Agency’s flood risk map, which purports to show areas in Salisbury with a one in 100 chance of a 20 per cent river flow increase leading to flooding.

Britford Meadows are shown immediately outside the area.

However Salisbury inhabitants know that flooding has occurred several times in the last decade so the EA map is woefully out-ofdate.

They do acknowledge that the model needs to be improved and I trust many others are drawing this urgent matter to their attention.

What urgently needs to be taken into account is climate change and sea level rise. It is too late to prevent at least a onemetre increase in sea level due to ice sheets melting by 2100 and hence the normal level of the River Avon will have to be higher to maintain its gradient down to the sea at Christchurch. Add the 20 per cent extra (EA’s figure) and flooding over all their map area, including Britford Meadows, is inevitable.

As a further example of their spin, Longford/St Nicholas exaggerate their case by incorrectly stating the flood risk as 1:1,000, which is not EA’s figure.

I do find it extraordinary that Longford cannot find room for these houses on their vast agricultural estate. As for St Nicholas Hospital – if they were birds one would say fouling their own nest.

DAVID ARUNDALE Salisbury