Here in the Fens the water doesn't rush about and cause floods, it stays where it falls until the pumps are started. We have several rivers that flow through the Fens. The water in these rivers are between 1 and 2 meters above our land level, when the rivers are in flood they are between 2 and 3 meters above land level. We have maintained these rivers and heightened the banks and to date there have been no rivers flooding out on to arable land. Our big rivers, the Great Ouse, the Nene and the Welland have an area to flood onto should water levels rise and this has been happening on the Great Ouse and the Nene. In the past in very wet years these flood plains have also become full and occasionally the banks have burst flooding several square miles of farmland.

There are a lot of fields with water in them at the moment which will of course be affecting the crop in that field, in addition to that some fields have not been able to be harvested or drilled with the next crop. It is a worrying time for farmers and we know already that we won’t have a good harvest next year and on top of that we have extra expenditure to cope with.