Victory for Mail as PM sends in the flood dredgers
And PM orders the dredgers to save sodden Somerset
RIVERS that have inundated swathes of Somerset will be dredged when floods recede, David Cameron said yesterday.
Taking control of the growing crisis, the Prime Minister said it was not acceptable for residents to suffer for so long.
Many have been cut off for a month – and have accused officials of gross incompetence.
Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said the armed forces would be sent in to help beleaguered residents.
Senior Army and Royal Navy planners were deployed to Somerset last night. Royal Marine landing craft will be used to ferry residents around and deliver supplies. The Environment Agency rejects claims that a build-up of silt was to blame for the devastating floods. But Mr Cameron said dredging should not be ‘held up by arguments’.
His intervention comes only hours after the Mail highlighted the residents’ plight.
DAVID Cameron seized control of the growing crisis over the Somerset floods yesterday and ordered overflowing rivers to be dredged.
Hours after the Daily Mail highlighted the appalling plight of villagers in Somerset, the Prime Minister said the situation was unacceptable and promised that accumulated river silt would be cleared for the first time since 2005.
Parts of the Somerset Levels have been under water since Christmas and worse is expected, with fresh storms and a tidal surge forecast over the weekend.
Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said last night that troops will be drafted in to help people affected by the floods.
After chairing a meeting of the Government’s emergency Cobra committee, Mr Paterson also said dredgers would be deployed, adding: ‘Things are going to get worse, with rising tides and people need to be prepared.
‘Specialist vehicles could help villages which have been cut off, to help people travel backwards
‘We need to move more rapidly’
and forwards, to get fuel and food in and out, and to help with transport from dry land.’
The MoD said last night that a handful of senior military planners, understood to be experts from the Army and the Royal Navy, had already been deployed to the Somerset Levels.
Amphibious landing craft, likely to be crewed by the Royal Marines, would be part of any assistance package. Military engineers could help stricken residents and rebuild damaged roads and infrastructure.
The severity of the crisis became clear yesterday when the Red Cross sent in an emergency vehicle that was used as part of rescue operations in Indonesia during the 2004 tsunami.
Thanks to its high ground clearance, the 7.5- ton truck was brought in to help emergency services get supplies to families cut off by the waters. Flood vic- tims, politicians and community leaders have demanded urgent action for weeks.
Experts blame two decades of environmental mismanagement for turning the Somerset Levels into a ‘disaster area’.
The Environment Agency has come under particular criticism as it emerged that its officials stopped regular dredging of the two key rivers on the Levels – the Tone and Parrett – in the midNineties. In a thinly-veiled swipe at officials who have refused to accept that dredging is the answer, the Prime Minister warned that the work should not be ‘held up by arguments’.
Mr Cameron yesterday told the Commons he would ‘rule nothing out’ to deal with the situation, adding: ‘We now need to move more rapidly to the issues like dredging which I think will help to make a long-term difference.
‘It is not currently safe to dredge in the Levels. But I can confirm that dredging will start as soon as the waters have started to come down.
‘The Environment Agency is pumping as much water as is possible given the capacity of the rivers around the Levels but I have ordered that further high-volume pumps from the national reserve will be made available.’
Lord Smith of Finsbury, chairman of the Environment Agency, has refused to accept responsibility for the crisis.
The Labour peer and former Culture Secretary said dredging ‘would not have solved the problems we are facing’.
But in comments apparently aimed at Lord Smith and civil servants who have quibbled about dredging, Mr Cameron told MPs: ‘I don’t want to see dredging work being held up by arguments in other departments. We have got to crack this problem.’
John Osman, leader of Somerset County Council, said: ‘This is just what we wanted to hear from the Prime Minister.
‘We are in a major incident. Now we have the PM behind us, people can start to believe real action – dredging the rivers, sorting the drainage systems, protecting our communities – will happen.’
Comment – Page 14 Quentin Letts – Page 24