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Points West Muchelney, Somerset Levels flooding & dredging at PMQs with local reaction 29Jan14 BBC

1,216 views · Published 29 January 2014 · 6:04 · Indexed 4 November 2026

Channel: Public Enquiry · 2014 · News & Politics

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Dredging of swollen Somerset rivers to start as soon as is 'practical', Cameron vows as Downing Street refuses to rule out sending in the army to deal clear up Environment Agency's mess 
Huge swathes of the Somerset Levels have been under water since Christmas
Now experts say Environment Agency's decision to stop dredging rivers had created 25-square-mile 'disaster area'
Two key Somerset rivers are so silted up their capacity is down 40 per cent, meaning water is unable to run to sea
By MATT CHORLEY, MAILONLINE POLITICAL EDITOR and BEN SPENCER
PUBLISHED: 23:36, 28 January 2014 | UPDATED: 15:17, 29 January 2014
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David Cameron today ordered river dredging to begin in flood-hit Somerset, as he said the government would do everything it could to alleviate the crisis, leaving the door open to sending in the army
The Prime Minister he warned he would not allow government in-fighting to hold up the work to remove silt and mud from riverbeds, although river levels are so high it is not currently safe to send in diggers.
It comes despite the Environment Agency refusing to accept responsibility for the 'disaster area', which the Commons was told has seen an area the size of Bristol left under water for a month.

Furious flood victims have accused officials of gross incompetence and abandoning them to the elements.
They said they feared the 'worst was yet to come' in the Somerset Levels, huge stretches of which have been under water since Christmas.
Experts backed up their claim that the Environment Agency's decision to stop dredging key rivers had led to the devastating floods.
The agency has instead spent £20million on a coastal nature sanctuary, and run a programme encouraging farmers to flood their fields to promote birdlife.

The Government has accepted that dredging has to resume, but Environment Agency chairman Lord Smith refuses to accept responsibility for the plight of beleaguered residents.

Today Mr Cameron over-ruled the quango, insisting dredging would start 'as soon as is practical'.
The government's emergency response committee COBRA is to meet today to 'explore what more we can do to help the villagers in the Somerset Levels', insisting the current situation 'is not acceptable'.
Officials last week declared a full-scale emergency in the area after warnings of more downpours.
Asked today if it could include sending in troops, a senior Downing Street source said: 'We are not ruling anything out. It is important that we do everything we can.'
Former farming minister David Heath, MP for Somerton and Frome, said an area the size of Bristol has been under water for a month.
He urged the PM to commit 'the whole of the government, including DCLG (the Department for Communities and Local Govenrment), Transport and the Treasury to working with Defra to deal with this situation. Not now but in future years as well.'
Mr Cameron insisted he was ruling nothing out, and had ordered ministers in Whitehall not to stand in the way of action.
'This does need to be a whole government effort because what I don't want to see is dredging work been held up by arguments in other departments.
'We have got to crack this problem. We now need to move more rapidly to the issues like dredging which I think will help to make a long-term difference.'
It raises the prospect of changing the law to direct the Environment Agency to resume routine dredging of rivers, which they insist is not part of their responsibilities because there is no threat to life from the floods.
It means national guidelines from the 1990s which stopped regular dredging of rivers are likely to be torn up. 
Two key Somerset rivers -- the Tone and Parrett -- are so clogged up with silt their capacity is down 40 per cent.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2547737/Drowning-misery-Homes-flooded-month-vast-tracts-farmland-wrecked-lives-hold-staggering-incompetence.html

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