Floods what did they do

Over about the last month or there about the UK has been flooded and i am told it nearly sunk.

I was walking by a river near where i live that had flooded some time ago. After the flood the river was widened quite a lot. The problem was the UK did not a lot apart from having flood defences in some places and some of these didn't work.

The pictures below show just what was done along this river. I am told that after the flood the local council had diggers go into the river to cut the river bank to make the river wider.

Trees are normally planted away from the river not right on the river side.

This is the best shot showing a stretch of the river with the trees right on the river edge. It works here but in the UK the owners of the side of the river would refuse to allow the rivers edge to be cut or they would want millions to give up there little piece of river to help avoid floods in the future.

Here you can see the bank being cut back if you look between the trees. The same between the trees of the picture below the river is being made wider due to recent floods.