Defra ignored Somerset flood warnings
I thought Chris Smith was woeful on the radio on Tuesday in his failure to talk straight about how the people of the Somerset Levels have been treated. I did have some sympathy with the Bridgewater MP who questioned how this could be allowed to happen at the same time the Environment Agency has spent £5 million on a bird habitat on the river Parrott (no pun intended).
OK so this landscape always looks a bit damp when you drive past it on the M5 but I have a strong conviction personally that the dwellers of this area have been let down. This article tells us:
Government officials were specifically warned a year ago that two rivers could cause severe flooding in the Somerset Moors – which have now been under water for weeks – unless they were properly dredged, The Independent has learnt.
The Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, faced fierce criticism from politicians in the flood-ravaged county of Somerset today, after it emerged that the Government has slashed its budget for maintaining England’s rivers by nearly half since taking office.
With parts of the county flooded for nearly a month now, residents were also dismayed to discover that Mr Paterson’s department had been told last year that the rivers Tone and Parrett risked inundating the surrounding area unless action was taken.
The amount of money Defra has allocated to maintain England’s rivers fell from £108m in 2010/11 – the year in which the Government took office – to about £92m in 2012/2013, the year in which Mr Paterson took office.