• TWO years before I bought a house here it rained hugely after a hot, dry, spell in 1976 and houses like mine at the foot of Hampstead Heath were flooded to a depth of more than three feet.

Water ran off the heath and filled piped tributaries of the Fleet. The pipes could not contain that amount of water and it surged out of the drains, flooding us.

The City of London managed the heath then and it commissioned a study and works to prevent that flooding again.

People who lived at the top of the heath, in Hampstead, sneered at these works which they claimed would ruin the heath.

Once again it has rained heavily and, living where I do, I am very grateful those works were carried out.

DR MARTIN ROSENDAAL, NW5