After reading the figures issued recently by the Office of National Statistics, it is obvious that their predictions must not be allowed to happen.

They claim that the population of Britain will increase by 17 million by the year 2051.

This represents a rise of 25 per cent in the population. We will not be able to cope with such an increase.

This country cannot survive a rise of 17 million in our population in the next 44 years.

Just think what this will mean. In the next 40 years we will have to build the equivalent of 40 cities the size of Bradford to accommodate this rise in population.

Everything else will also have to be increased by 25 per cent. We will need to build an extra 6,000 schools This will put 8 million more cars on the roads. We will need 25 per cent more hospitals, surgeries, doctors, prisons, shops and workplaces. We will need 25 per cent more sewage works and land fill sites.

We cannot provide power for all these new buildings. More power stations will have to be built.

Think of the amount of good agricultural land that will be lost to make way for all these buildings and their accompanying roads.

This means that we will produce much less food to feed even more people.

It will mean an increase of 25 per cent in goods traffic to supply this increase.

Roads will be gridlocked. How will our overworked NHS cope with an increase of 25 per cent in their workload? The emergency services will not be able to get around because of the traffic.

As we regularly experience water shortages (especially in the south of the country), we will not have the water to supply this increase in the population.

We will need to flood many valleys to create reservoirs to supply water, thus losing much more agricultural land. Extra airports will have to be built to deal with the needs of the extra population.

The list of other needs is too long for this column, but I hope you grasp the idea.

All these extra buildings and roads will result in us collecting 25 per cent more water, which we will collect and put in our rivers during periods of rain. The result will be a massive rise in flooding.

Areas which get flooded during periods of heavy rain will suffer much more, and will even suffer during less heavy rain. Areas that have never been flooded before will now start to suffer.

All this must not be allowed to happen. We won't be able to cope.

And what happens in the 40 years following 2051? It won't just stop in 2051.

However, being the supreme optimist, I find that there is an up side to all this.

We will see road traffic accidents fall to almost nil. If traffic is constantly at a snail's pace, then there will be very few accidents on the roads.