The importance of getting it right

Do you remember where you were and what you were doing on the evening of 25th June 2007. I do. I remember it vividly. My family were fleeing our home as the River Corve in Ludlow gushed into our house.

This picture was taken seconds after we got out and before the realisation that we were homeless had even dawned on us.

The following morning after a night spent crying, I went back to the house to get us some clothes for us all. My home was ruined, irreplaceable family photographs destroyed and our lives were in tatters. Everything we took for granted had gone and that night we had no idea where we were going to sleep. Desperately sad times that although we recovered from, doesn't take much to bring those feelings and memories back to us.

So imagine how I felt this week when the headline on the front of my local paper read 'Flood Warning Camera Plan.' The article went on to say that Ludlow Town Council had been awarded a £10,000 grant from the Environment Agency and they wanted to install a camera linked to a website to give flood warnings. Well excuse me but I thought that was a joke, after all the best way of telling if the rivers are going to flood is to note the excessive amount of water flowing through them and for that you don't need an expensive camera system.

The article also mentioned that another use for the camera would be so that water levels could be gauged to see whether it was safe or not to use the river for leisure activities. To me this was the local council trying to justify the expenditure of the cameras for leisure facilities by using the excuse that it was there as a flood warning system. I thought the whole thing was sick so this morning I contacted my local radio station and told them exactly what I thought and how I felt.

It turned out to be an interesting experience. Following my interview they had the town clerk of Ludlow Town Council on and she confirmed that the cameras were primarily there for the tourism and leisure facilities and she was sorry about what had been written in the local paper as it was not their intention to use the floods of 2007 as an excuse to buy the cameras.

So, yes I have written to the local paper and expressed my disgust at their article but oh isn't it so important to get facts right because incorrect facts can cause unnecessary distress. As writers we have to be so careful and for those who do any form of journalism always remember, report not distort the facts.