The front page of last week’s Watford Observer (October 9) leads with a report that development is ‘not to blame’ for flooding in the area of Watford’s Lower High Street. What a load of baloney. Everyone is aware just how overdeveloped that area has become in recent years.

With no upgrading taking place by Thames Water to upgrade an out-of-date old main drainage system in the area and surrounding areas of Lower High Street, it is no surprise these old main drainage systems cannot accommodate the additional waste water that now discharges from an area that has been overdeveloped, resulting in serious consequences with an impact on Lower High Street and surrounding areas.

Hertfordshire county councillor Stephen Giles-Medhurst then expects me and everyone else to swallow his theory for the flooding that he sticks on Mother Nature and not on an overdeveloped area.

Sorry, Cllr Giles-Medhurst - don’t expect me to get sucked into with the idea that Mother Nature is to blame for the extreme flooding. When my grandparents lived at the bottom end of Chalk Hill in the late 19th century and into the 20th century, practically under Bushey Arches, if flooding did occur in the area, it would soon subside within hours and not stay flooding the area for days on end.

Ernie Mackenzie

Gammons Lane, Watford