The Avon.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19675, 19 July 1929, Page 10

The Avon.

i A very unfortunate situation would j have been created if the local rowing clubs had found themselves unable to , make use of the river Avon because of I the objections wised this week by the Department of Health. The clearing and deepening of the bed of the river by the Drainage Board's sweeper led to ! an expectation that a greater depth of j water with a surface level no higher ! than before would automatically result, but when the machine completed its task and swept the bank of silt ahead of it into the Estuary it began to be clear that rowing enthusiasts would be disappointed. The surface level of the river had been lowered to the extent of the deepening effected, but the actual depth of water remained approximately the same. It was then proposed by the Rowing Association that a weir should be placed across the stream at the lower end of the rowing course, and a temporary experimental weir was installed last season and achieved its purpose in holding up a sufficient depth of water to enable racing to be carried out. Application has since been made to the Drainage Board for authority to install a weir of more permanent construction and provided with adequate safeguards to prevent the surface level j of the water rising higher than it was before the sweeper started work. The necessary authority was granted by the Board at its meeting this week, but not before an objection had been received from the Medical Officer of Health based on a fear that the raising of the level and the consequent storage of a larger quantity of water over the stretch affected would prove harmful to subsoil drainage. The conditions of the country flanking the lower reaches of the river are of course peculiar. Much of the land is naturally very low-lying and in rainy periods suffers saturation very easily. There is very little fall to the river, and as the river itself has very little fall to the sea, it is not able to afford that relief to water-logged land which a stream with a greater fall would give. Moreover the tides exercise a dominating influence over the surface level of the water in the river, and when the tide level approximates to the land level, as is frequently the case, all chance of subsoil or any other form of drainage disappears. It therefore does not seem that the installation of the weir will make much difference one way or the other, except to oarsmen. If it were within the power of any local authority to regulate the tide lift or to give the river and the surrounding country a better fall to the sea then the problem of saturation and subsoil drainage could easily be solved. As matters stand, the tides control the situation, and nothing that either the Rowing Association or the Drainage Board can do —certainly nothing that they propose to do—will affect the position.