SO we spend millions of pounds to protect York from flood damage, only to learn that these very defences could wreak their own devastation. You have to laugh.

Or perhaps it is Mother Nature who is laughing. The more we try to control her, the more irrepressible she becomes.

The city's flood defences do a stout job in keeping the Ouse and Foss at bay. York suffered in the deluge of 2000. But the floods would have been disastrous if the Foss Barrier had failed.

Plans are being drawn up further to shore up the city's defences. Yet this work may have ruinous consequences, according to Leeds University expert Joe Holden.

Our visible heritage could be ravaged and our undiscovered history destroyed.

Widespread dehydration of the city could ultimately cause it to crack up. Sewers might collapse and roads buckle. Meanwhile the eight-metre-deep layer of archaeological remains underneath York, preserved for 2,000 years, could be lost in a fraction of that time.

Some might be unconcerned at the threat to what amounts to our ancestors' rubbish. It is worth remembering, therefore, that we have the wet conditions to thank for preserving so much of York's Viking settlement.

The Coppergate discovery changed the world's view of that civilisation, and created Jorvik. What else is lurking beneath us, waiting to spring historic revelations? If we do not protect our water table, we may never know.

Hydrologist Dr Holden believes that new housing and shopping developments in York could accelerate the problem.

We look forward to the results of his study. They could prove to be a key component in the complex task of preserving and progressing our beautiful city.

Updated: 10:08 Tuesday, February 24, 2004