Prince of Wales tells villagers 'holistic' approach is needed to tackle flooding

On Thursday, the prince spoke to villagers Rod and Helen Wyatt at their garden gate and was told how the water almost topped gravestones in a cemetery opposite during a flood. The couple have now tiled the ground floor of their house and live with the threat of further flooding. Rod, who has lived in his home for 10 years, made light of the experience when he told Prince William that, at one point, "we had to give up really, we got two bottles of Prosecco and went to watch Strictly upstairs".The prince replied: "It must be so demoralising for you now, the worry each year you've got to go through that again, potentially, is becoming more frequent."They keep talking about a one in 50-year event, it doesn't make sense anymore."It might be in the researching and scientific point of view - it's happening every year now, it's mad."So, it's trying to understand how we can do a better holistic view of the whole catchment area, so we're dealing with the whole problem."He listed a number of ideas, from "slowing the water down" using farming landscaping remedies, to tree planting and better monitoring "so we know when things might be getting worse".