Rain stops everything: I would love to give you tales of my exploits in Edinburgh convincing the masses to remain in a United Kingdom BUT...just the heavens descended, flooding the motorway and preventing all rail travel. Managed to get home via Ponteland and the small river by the golf club was beginning to flood. Many congratulations to the emergency services who did a great job. I will spend today checking everyone is all right. One farmer friend said the brook at the end of his lane, "looked like the Zambezi."
When in Ponteland I also checked out the state of the River Pont, which seemed to be coping reasonably well, although rising rapidly. The bund and power station to the Haugh were clearly in no danger last night.
However, opponents of the proposed property development schemes in Ponteland - as put forward by Banks and Lugano - would be well advised to look at yesterdays flood water: it is patently clear that the low lying ground around Ponteland, to the east of the golf club in particular, cannot be built upon.
