THE warning given recently by Councillor Caroline Nokes about the serious flood risk in the Romsey area is very timely.

As a representative of Nursling and Rownhams on Test Valley Borough Council as well as being the occupant of house that is close to the River Test, I ask whether the risk to areas downstream of Romsey has been adequately appreciated by the Environment Agency.

The fields, both north and south of the M27, and at Yew Tree Farm near Adanac have flooded regularly when the Test breaks its banks.

Increased threat of flooding comes from the twin problems of extra rainfall levels producing excess water flows in the rivers and also from rising sea levels. So an area like Nursling strung out along the river but also at the head of the estuary could face a double whammy.

It certainly suggests that this is not an area to build the thousands of houses that Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants to inflict on south Hampshire.

NIGEL ANDERDON, Nursling.