TURNING Rombalds Moor into a giant 'plant pot' by boring near-horizontally into the ground and installing permeable pipes could be the solution to flooding in the valley, a professor has claimed.

Academic and industrialist, Professor David Rhodes, presented the idea of enhancing the moor's natural ability to soak up and slowly release rainwater in a talk to Menston residents hosted by Menston Action Group (MAG).

And he claimed a computer model used to calculate flood risk underestimates the volume of water involved in major rainfall events, such as the storm that caused the Boxing Day floods.

In his talk at Kirklands Community Centre, titled Flooding: A Novel Solution, he proposed using the moor as a means of storing water, and slowly releasing it into established water courses, preventing water from heavy rain flooding downhill.

Prof Rhodes said: "The capacity in the moor is absolutely enormous, that's what I'm proposing. It can be done very easily, and I'm pretty certain it will work."

The cost of such a scheme for the Menston area could cost in the region of £10,000 to £20,000, he estimates.

Installing hundreds of pipes around the perimeter of Rombalds Moor would cost millions, he believes, but could be an effective solution to flooding in the valley.

Prof Rhodes likened the effect to that of a giant plant pot, which absorbs water poured in, but allows a slower flow of water from holes in the underside.

MAG enlisted the help of Prof Rhodes - founder of Shipley wireless communications company Filtronic, and a recipient of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s highest award, the Prince Philip Medal - to study flood risk resulting from proposed large housing developments in the village.

Prof Rhodes gave an analysis of the flood risk problems in Menston at the talk, and questioned the measures currently being suggested to deal with drainage and surface water if fields on Derry Hill and Bingley Road are developed.

His studies have highlighted how High Royds Hospital once drew about 30 million gallons of water per year from the ground in the area, which supplied all of the water needed for the hospital.

Another vertical bore once provided millions more gallons of water for residents of the village.

But the High Royds' pumping operation ceased when the hospital closed.

Prof Rhodes said the pump supplying the rest of Menston was switched off at about the same time, and Yorkshire Water began to import water for domestic supplies into Menston from elsewhere, leaving the water underneath Menston untapped.

"Unfortunately, nobody wants to use all this water," said Prof Rhodes.

Using recently perfected near-horizontal drilling techniques on the moor would be cheaper than the drilling vertical bores which were used for pumping water out of the ground in the past.