OK – it’s time to level with me!

Is it just me or is it mildly diverting (bad pun) that it takes a powerful yet natural disaster to hear about a place that has always been there? A place that then becomes endowed with a new mystical name to, I assume, make us more sympathetic to its plight. 

I’m talking, of course, about the Somerset Levels - that sparsely populated coastal plain and wetland area of central Somerset, in South West England, running south from the Mendip Hills to the Blackdown Hills. Which, of itself, is odd, because, by definition, land squeezed between 2 sets of hills cannot be level. 

I digress! What I love about this is that, in the space of a month, a geographical region has become part of the national psyche, driven on mostly by a location descriptor that is so emotively tuned for the climatically challenged times we live in. 

But here’s where I get a little confused (not difficult, I know!). If this place truly is level, where is all of the water that now rests there going to go? Set aside the geological fact that the water table is unnaturally high due to almost 3 months of continuous rain, the name of the region (clearly beloved of the local population) is a misnomer. It is actually a wetland area, straddled by many coast bound rivers and streams, so it was always a fair bet that, in these conditions, something massively upsetting was going to happen. And so it did. 

The Somerset Levels is now a 160,000-acre lake, stretching in any direction as far as the eye can see, and there seems very little we can do to help the poor local people. Only last evening I watched the News as The Environmental Agency began pumping water away from the region – but to where? It seems as if they are just trying to appease local anger at the fact that it has taken almost a month to put a plan in place. 

So, are the EA just moving it from one village doorstep to another? It’s a sad sight, but the Somerset Levels are now firmly planted in the national consciousness. It strikes me though, that if you live and work in an area called The Levels, maybe it’s time to look to the higher ground – which, on a more positive note, surrounds them. 

Up you go! 

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