100 FLOOD JOBS LOST
AT least 100 staff are being axed at the Environment Agency just months after it faced a backlash over its response to devastating winter floods.
Union chiefs claim the cuts will hit the Government’s ability to respond to floods and storms and branded the move “utterly ludicrous”.
The cutbacks, by September 30, come after funding was slashed 15 per cent at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the department that oversees the EA.
Justin Bowden, GMB national officer, said: “Cutting any jobs at the EA is utterly ludicrous as the recent floods have shown us.
“The government, who are driving these cuts, has clearly forgotten the devastation caused by the recent winter floods i n 2013/ 14 and 2015/ 2016 which affected thousands of families.”
EA chairman Sir Philip Dilley was forced to resign in January when it was revealed he remained at his Barbados home when northern England suffered devastating floods on Boxing Day.
Experts claimed the combined cost of December’s floods, which hit Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire the hardest, was £1.5billion.
Earlier this year it was revealed the Environment Agency ploughed £14million into lavish redundancy packages but spent only £8.9million on flood-risk plans during the two years to March 2015.