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The Houses of Parliament, Downing Street and MI5 are most at risk if the Thames breaches it banks, a study claims.
Westminster council planners have mapped the likely course of flood waters across central London to help them improve defences in the event of extreme weather brought on by climate change.
The flood breach scenario is based on a failure of the Thames Barrier and breaches of defences on the Embankment, combined with a one in 200-year tidal flood. At worst there would be a two-metre rise in 30 minutes.
On Tuesday parts of London were brought to a standstill and thousands of commuters were stranded following a few torrential downpours.
The events confirmed the council's fears that, in spite of the Thames Barrier and Embankment Wall, Westminster is vulnerable to rising tides and heavier rainfall.
The council wants developers to do their part to protect the city by including simple and natural forms of drainage to reduce the amount of flood water running into drains.
These would include roofs covered in sedum plants, water tanks to collect rainwater, paving that allows water to drain into the ground and more grassy areas.
Deputy council leader Robert Davis said: “Like many major cities, London is built on the banks of a great river and is therefore vulnerable to climate change. We must ensure the city is prepared for any eventuality.
“Urban city centres are notorious for being concrete jungles and we are asking for developers to incorporate sustainable, simple measures to ease this potential problem.”
The Palace of Westminster, Whitehall, MI5's HQ and Scotland Yard are built on a flood plain which stretches from Embankment through St James's Park to Buckingham Palace Road. Buckingham Palace is just outside the plain, but thousands of properties in Westminster, Pimlico and Belgravia lie within it.
Central London has not suffered severe flooding since 1928 when 14 were killed. If river defences failed the impact could be substantial.
Two weeks of heavy rainfall would also pose problems as drains, underground rivers and defences would struggle to cope.
Mr Davis said: “The chances of a catastrophic breach of flood defences like 1928 are extremely small, but given climate change and the increasingly erratic weather conditions we must plan for the future.”
Climate change is predicted to cause sea levels to rise by 20-50cm by 2050, and to increase extreme weather events such as torrential rain. Consultancy Halcrow mapped the areas which would be worst affected in floods, identifying 19 streets most likely to experience flash flooding.
Roads at most risk of flash flooding
Whitehall
Buckingham Gate
Great Peter Street
Vincent Street
A202 Vauxhall Bridge Road
Buckingham Palace Road
Broadwick Street
Bruton Lane
Wigmore Street
Langham Place
Bolsover Street
Marylebone High Street
Glentworth Street
Bishopbridge Road
Bourne Terrace
Harrow Road
Dart Street
Shirland Road
Abbey Road
Reader views (30)
Global warming and Global cooling are NATURAL ,its been going on for 1000s years. Check it out , how about you start with , say " IAN PILMER'
Now you must all bow down to
" Climate Change and Environmentalism the NEW RELIGION."
* and of course you must now put your Money into the Collection Tray .
- Ezza, lancashire, ENGLAND
Quote Dave Sellick , Woking , Surrey "Would this be WMF (weapon of mass flooding) rather than WMD as stated by Tony Blair? Brilliant if it is, it's 15mins faster than the WMD's!!"
AT LEAST WMF's Exist and not the lies that have and still bellow from Westminster, let it flood I will be holding a party for all spectators near by !
- Michael Fincham, London
Alan Green, can you please explain why every prediction made by the doom-mongering EcoStasi has failed to materialise, or has been quietly sidelined once discredited in favour of the latest prediction of impending armageddon from this neoreligion?
It has been suggested by independent research that there is not enough land locked ice to create anything like the rise in sea level predicted by the climate change lobby, even if it all melted (sea ice is already displacing water equivalent to the overwhelming bulk of its volume by virtue of the fact that it is floating). The inconvenient truth for the flood merchants is that the amount of ice in Antarctica is increasing, making total meltdown extremely unlikely.
The fact is that CO2 rise is a product of temperature rise, not its cause.
The paeleological record shows that the Earths climate has been much warmer than today for the majority of its 4.5 billion year history, and that cyclic climate change is a perpetual phenomenon driven by the cyclic activity of the big ball of fire that appears in the sky every morning. Why is that such a difficult concept? It also shows that the warmer periods are associated with explosions in the amount and variety of life, so how is does that square with the theory that rising temperatures and CO2 are going to destroy us all? The answer is simple, it doesn't.
Global warming disaster is a political construct designed to give politicians an excuse to exercise more control over our daily lives.
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster
Global warming is a lie and a myth.
Read "state of fear" by Michael Crichton.
- Russell, London
Imagine the moat-cleaning bill THAT will incur!
And what of the Olympic Village site, which was chosen to be outside the barrier on some mud flats . . . ?
- Roz, France
The global warming cult lead by Al Gore, that has imposed billions of Dollars of taxes through Carbon Certificates is crippling industry in the West. China, and India and probably Russia plus many other countries are excluded from this craziness. Is that because our wealthy International companies operate there and want to put Western Businesses out of business and our people out of work? Astronomers who control billions of Dollars of Equipment like the huge Aroceba Observatory and the Hubble, and massive Keck observatories call the Global warming through Carbon Dioxide as poppy cock as the sun has been heating up all the planets in the universe the same as earth. This fact has been suppressed. Further what alerted me to this was a book that is thousands of years old, that reported on this problem today of growing heat on the planet was the heat in the sun. The areas where most droughts and loss of water and life occurs is in the centre around the equator of the planet where there is lots of direct sunlight but comparatively few cars. Yet the North where USA, Europe Japan no such huge droughts are occurring. The famous IPCC report was never published due to the fact many top scientists withdrew their names when the fact that the 1700’s having higher carbon dioxide levels than today, yet it was the coldest century on record was with drawn from that report. The book that reported the sun was the problem….. THE BIBLE many thousands of years ago.
- Jas, Camberley UK
Let it happen when the greedy, crooked MPs are in Parliament.
- Edwin, beaconsfield buckinghamshire
The downside evades me for the moment.
- Michael, Worcester
Alan Green, Woodford Green - Do you say "Baa Baa" like all the other sheep?
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, Hants
WESTMINSTER IS IN NEED OF A GOOD WASH OUT IT CAN ONLY HELP US, LOL LOL
- Sara, london
Great pity Westminster City Councils parking department is on the 14 floor of City Hall. Could it be moved down to the basement of City Hall please?
- Lucy, Westminster
Politicians deserting the sinking houses of parliament, bring it on, they are mostly wet anyway!
- David, Isle of Wight
That sounds great and I shall be waiting to go down to see it and watch the sharks struggling for their money, but then they will be claiming for the expense of having to buy dingys.
T H Leeds
- Thomas Hayes, Leeds UK
More greenie global warming rubbish.
Iit rains, it snows, its hot, its cold, its foggy, its windy, its all called weather not global warming.
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, Hants
WILL NOT BE SO FUNNY WHEN OUR GREAT GRAND CHILDREN DROWN IN THEIR LONDON BASEMENTS, MOST POPULAR HOLIDAY PLACES ON THE CONTINENT ARE TOO HOT TO VISIT, WATER WARS ARE CONSTANT AND BILLIONS OF ISLANDERS ARE HOMELESS.
STLL WE WILL HAVE HAD OUR GIGGLE.
- Alan Green, Woodford Green
Lets hope all our MPs are sitting at the time,and they say there isnt a God.
- Dave, london
The electorate would be absolutely delighted if it did flood and flush out all the lying, thieving MPs who have been robbing us blind for years. It would have to happen on a Wednesday if it were to flush out the entire cesspit as Wedneswday is the only day MPs attend the commons. The rest of their time is taken up fiddling their expenses.
- R.F., Yorks, UK
Westmonster City Council are already drawing up plans for boat parking charges in former motorcycle bays.
Charges will rise to cover the £4 million necessary to fund twenty quids-worth of mooring buoys.
Fines will be doubled at Residents parking bays where vehicles are found to be floating above the submerged lines.
Visitors to Westmonster will need to tread water while bellowing out their credit card details on their mobile phones to pay the parking taxes.
Parking Enforcement Minions will be issued snorkels and flippers; their scooters replaced with jet skis and waterproof crayons issued to ensure that the flow of tickets continues unabated.
- Gary, London Marina
Wash out all the rubbish in parliment. Can you imagine the cost of the MP's dry cleaning expenses?
- Frank, Copenhagen
Thirty minutes, you say? I´m sure we can do better than that, if we really tried.
- Graham Rodhouse, Helmond, Netherlands
They wouldn't be missed. Rain, rain rain, rain, rain!!!
- Sue, Orpington, Kent
Bring it on. Hopefully it will get all 3 in one go....
- Electra M, London
Would this effect MP's claiming there expenses.
- Shallotman, Basildon
"...The historic core of Westminster is the former Thorney Island on which Westminster Abbey was built." - Wikipedia. Hear that? Island! So what do we expect? Global greenie children know no history, and have also forgotten King Canute's trip to the seaside (he was making the same point, to the same sort of nutters).
- Steve, London, England
Let's hope it won't be long before Brown and Darling are swept away.
Is global warming man-made? I doubt it: in the past CO2 levels have risen because of temperature increses; not caused them and, in any case, most of the CO2 in the atmosphere comes from volcanoes; not from factories and car exhausts. If a scientist is seeking funding nowadays he or she tries to link their search to global warming to win favour; the media and school teachers have jumped on the bandwagon to peddle this sophistry so that now the whole thiing has become a world-wide industry.
- Richard, Welling
"Westminster could flood in 30 minutes"..that's 29 minutes too long!
- Judith C, London, UK
Have you noticed how the words "global warming" are connected to anything and everything in the media lately?
1953 and 1976 were scorching hot summers in the UK.
GLOBAL WARMING DID NOT APPLY IN 1953 AND 1976 AND IT DOES NOT APPLY NOW AND NEVER WILL.
THOSE WHOM ARE SPOUTING THE GLOBAL WARMING MANTRA ARE AFTER YOUR CASH AND NOTHING ELSE.
- Reuben Camara, Republic of Morecambe, UK
The Thames is a great river? Don't make me laugh. Thank god we don't live next to the Rhine, Volga or Amazon then. Our inability to cope with rain is just symptomatic of our ability to plan for unusual weather "events". No wonder we're meant to be great at showing dogged perserverence in the face of adversity - given that the "system" can't cope with anything other than normailty.
- Al, Reading
Would this be WMF (weapon of mass flooding) rather than WMD as stated by Tony Blair? Brilliant if it is, it's 15mins faster than the WMD's!!
- Dave Sellick, Woking, Surrey
Probably a good thing. Wash out the politicians who spend our money and allow 'grey area' terrorists to run amok.
- Jc, London
