The catalogue of failures

The Environment Agency stands accused of a series of failures in Somerset and elsewhere:

The Government has accepted that dredging needs to restart in Somerset, but the Environment Agency – which has a £1.2billion-ayear budget and employs 11,400 staff – will provide only £350,000 out of the required £4million.

Environment Agency chairman Lord Chris Smith has still refused to accept responsibility, conceding only that dredging would ‘probably make a small difference’.

It has managed to find £20million for the Steart Point bird sanctuary on the Somerset coast, but will not stump up more for the dredging project.

Farmers are no longer allowed to clear their own ditches, for fear of harming wildlife and plants – and agency officials do not regularly carry out the work either.

The agency has actively tried to create a wetland for wading birds on parts of the Somerset Levels, encouraging farmers to flood their fields each winter, which may worsen the risk of major flooding in a deluge. National England, another quango, pays farmers an ‘environmental stewardship’ fee for flooding fields.

The Environment Agency is accused of prioritising towns and cities for flood defence money – anywhere ‘a minister can come along in a hard hat and say, “I’m defending this town”,’ according to the National Farmers Union.