Blame Defra not the Environment Agency...

From: JS Lomas, Sykehouse, Goole.

I COMMEND Anne McIntosh for speaking out against the Government’s main rivers maintenance policy (Yorkshire Post, March 27).

I have been an active internal drainage board member for 26 years and chaired the Dun Drainage Commissioners for a three-year term.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In 2007 I had the pleasure of meeting Anne on the visit she made to the village of Toll Bar to see for herself the devastation caused by the serious floods of that year.

She spoke of her concern after seeing the lack of river maintenance on the Ea Beck and said she would do her utmost to rectify the maintenance issue when the Conservatives get back into power.

Over the past 50 years, Britain has carried out an extensive building programme which has resulted in tens of thousands of acres of land being covered in concrete and asphalt.

The excess water run-off from this covered area has frequently been drained by ditches which run through agricultural land, some of which have been maintained by internal drainage boards.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

During this time to accommodate the ever-increasing number of motor vehicles, new motorways, bypasses and road network systems have been built.

Over the same period of time there has been a reduced level of financial investment in main rivers to deal with the increase amount of water run-off which has consequently led to an increase in flash flooding.

The Environment Agency is often blamed for the policy of not maintaining main rivers. However, it operates under the guidelines of Defra and is responsible for the implementation of Defra’s maintenance policy.

The Government must acknowledge the importance of river maintenance and increase funding to carry out future maintenance work to help protect both urban and rural properties.