What do the floods of the last couple of weeks teach us?

(1) Building on a flood plain is plain stupid.
(2) When you live on a plateau above a flood plain and there is water all around you (a) it isn't clean because (b) it has lots of nasty things in it and (c) it can stay around for an awful long time.
(3) Drains are only as good as the people who plan, build and maintain them.
(4) When something goes wrong everyone tries to weasel out of responsibility leaving the householder to pick up the bill wherever possible.

Recall that in the Liatris planning application the developers themselves say: "It is recognised that at times of extreme weather the site will become a self-contained island surrounded by upwards of 1 metre of water. In this case we recommend that the island has 2 refuges (1 at the Visitor Centre and one at the supermarket) with first aid facilities and where 2 shallow draft boats or 2 sea tractors can be stored to aid in evacuation".

I wonder if anyone has told the supermarket interested in the Seaton site that they must have a refuge and sea tractors - have they allowed for this in their plans! Or will it be the Visitor Centre which has to store them? No-brainer there then.

And as for drains: the bigger and better the drains the more money it takes to build them and maintain them. This is something that developers and water companies have neglected for years and years. There are more and more of us, using more and more water and giving out more and more sewerage so, when it rains, it doesn't take much for backflow to happen. The water company then shrugs its shoulders and says, well, of course we can't do anything about this, nothing to do with us. And the developer is long gone.

One of the ways that developers cut costs is to do minimum work where you can't see it - in this case underground. So, the drainage system is put in for 350 homes. What happens if you then build 400 or 450 or the homes are over-occupied? What happens if you underestimate how much water the supermarket puts into the system, or the thousands of people who go to the visitor centre? We already know that South West Water has said that if anything else is built on this site it will need more and better drains.

So, would you live on

(a) a floodplain or
(b) a plateau on a flood plain or
(c) anywhere except Seaton

Answers here please!