Former floods minister Richard Benyon defends decision not to dredge rivers

That was the response of Newbury MP Richard Benyon this week after the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said that the Government had relied too heavily on Environment Agency advice in deciding not to dredge rivers in the Somerset Levels.
At the time that decision was made, Mr Benyon was minister responsible for floods
“For me to have relocated funds would have meant taking funding away from other schemes where the taxpayers pound would have gone much further and protected a lot more people a lot more successfully,” he said.
The criticism comes at a time when flooding across the Thames Valley, and particularly in West Berkshire, is at crisis level, with many river levels running at record highs leaving homes, roads and businesses flooded.
“I’m not an engineer and they have very good engineers,” he said. “Of course, along with every other politician or human being, I am regretting the misery that people have suffered, not least in my own constituency. I understand that people feel emotional, but these are complex issues that need to be considered in the weeks after a flood event, not during it.”
He added that dredging rivers locally would not have prevented the current flooding issues in West Berkshire either.
“I have known the River Kennet for all of my 53 years and in that time and for many years beyond, it has not been dredged and should not be dredged, because all the water would rush through West Berkshire into people’s homes in Reading,” he said. “It would be an environmental tragedy.
“To say that the whole of the solution to Eastbury’s flooding problem at the moment comes down to a lack of dredging on all our rivers is ridiculous.
“The bad news is people are traumatised, so what can we do?
“We can learn from every single flooding incident.
“It has frustrated me more than I can express that it has taken Eastbury seven years to get the flood bund that’s going to get built this year.
“We have got to be quicker in doing these things.”
According to Environment Agency spokeswoman Caroline Juby, it will be making up to 1,550 redundancies, reducing its staff numbers from 11,250 to 9,700 by October, making savings that would mean more money to be invested in projects such as flood alleviation schemes, Mr Benyon said.
In this week's Newbury Weekly News, it was reported that the Environment Agency would be making between 9,700 and 11,250 redundancies by October. This information has been corrected above.