FARMERS and land owners have offered to cooperate with the Government to prevent future large-scale flooding by creating artificial floodplains - areas of open land set aside to take up excess water in order to protect towns and villages downstream.

The 40,000-member Country Land and Business Association is making the offer whilst calling for the environment department Defra to create a "better balance" in its management of the environment in general, protection of wildlife, and flood defences.

We are beginning to understand the scale of the human tragedy which has unfolded over the last few
days

David Fursdon - CLA

In a statement published yesterday, CLA President David Fursdon said: "When the flood waters subside, we need to engage in a national debate about how our members can be part of the solution to a problem that is almost certain to recur.

"Landowners have a valuable role to play on behalf of society and there will be circumstances where, by allowing their land to flood, they will be able to reduce the risk of urban flooding downstream. We need to look at creating more natural floodplains and emergency water storage areas to protect towns and villages which are at risk.

"The government needs to ensure that the mechanisms and the funding which will enable this to happen are put in place quickly - the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme might be a suitable mechanism in many cases - but it is currently not adequately funded,".

There was, he added, another aspect to the debate - which was about striking a balance between environmental aspirations and flood defence requirements.

"Where we are prevented, under a variety of regulations including water level management plans, from cleaning out ditches and rivers in case we disturb nesting birds, then we are clearly prejudicing our ability to manage summer flooding. We need a balanced approach with caveats which can be applied where flooding is likely.

But the CLA - which has just cancelled its own Game Fair at an estimated cost of some £50 million to the economy - says there's another story to tell beyond the immediate impact of the flooding.

"We are beginning to understand the scale of the human tragedy which has unfolded over the last few days but within that, we mustn't lose sight of the impact this is going to have on thousands of rural business for months to come," said Mr Fursdon.

The countryside, he said, could ill afford another devastating economic blow, another tourist season lost and untold damage to the host of small businesses dependent on agriculture, land use and rural tourism.

"We are talking about the farm shops, bed and breakfast accommodation, the tourism operators and the businesses located in converted farm buildings - these are the pillars which now support the land-based industries and, at the moment, we can only begin to guess at the level of impact this is going to have on those businesses."

• Game Fair cancellation: a bad omen for the future? We discuss the threat in A week in the country