KATE?TEMPLETON, of Deane Road, Stokeinteignhead, writes:

This last episode of prolonged heavy rainfall and flooding has reminded me of a previous similar event in the early 2000s, when I was working at Seale-Hayne.

It was also in November and after a long period of rain the fields were saturated to such an extent that the water was running off the fields and making its way down through the farm to the A383 at the bottom of the hill.

It then crossed over the road and ran through the fields on the other side of the River Lemon and was luckily held back by the Holbeam Dam. Incidentally, the levels at the dam have been very high this year.

What worries me is the effect that will result from the construction of 1,800 houses at Seale-Hayne, plus the 600 or so on the Hele Park golf course and the 300 or more that are now being built at Mile End. All are upstream of Newton Abbot.

At the moment the land at Seale-Hayne is acting as a natural sponge, the flood signs are frequently out on the road by the golf course after wet weather.

Bearing in mind that an acre/inch of water (ie the amount of runoff caused by an inch of rain falling on one acre of saturated ground) is approx 28,000 gallons, where is all this water going to go when these acres are covered in tarmac and concrete?

Not only will the sponge effect be negated, but the runoff will be immediate.

Will it be drained into the Lemon at the Holbeam Dam and will there be enough capacity to take it, or, as I suspect, will it be drained into the Lemon downstream of the dam or into the River Teign?

Whichever route it will take, the water has to go through or under Newton Abbot town, which could be disastrous.MORE LETTERS IN OUR ONLINE EDITION