Donate SIGN UP

Answers

1 to 7 of 7rss feed

Best Answer

No best answer has yet been selected by youngmafbog. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.

For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.
'Islington brigade'?

What?
Why do you propose that this might be the end of the EA?
Islington brigade ? What the Fire Brigade ?
Nice attempt to deflect the blame by Pickles. As soon as the Coalition came to power they slashed the Environment Agency's budget, and have continued to cut it every year since.

2010

// Meanwhile, the Environment Agency's spending will fall six per cent next year – from £199.9m this year to £187.9m in 2011-12. It will continue to fall each year through to 2014-15, resulting in a 16 per cent cut by 2014-15 when the budget will stand at £167m. //

Perhaps it was a cut too far.
In the Chancellor's spending review last June, the EA suffered even more cuts.

A prophetic article in The Guardian in October 2013, warned of the damage though cuts would make to the EAs ability to manage flooding.

// When the chancellor announced his spending review in June, it was clear that the Environment Agency's future was not rosy. But its staff were shocked to learn on 10 October that the cuts would translate into approximately 1,400 job losses.

Senior managers will work out the details of which services will be cut on 14-15 October and put their proposals to the agency's board on 17 October for endorsement.

Although we do not know the details, one thing is clear: the Environment Agency relies on a complex web of interacting functions and activities to provide its services to the public in England.

This is true for routine activities and its incident response role. A cut in one function will not just affect the specific environmental outcomes associated with that funding stream.

Let's look at the agency's best-known service – flood risk management. It would be quite easy to assume that if your house isn't in a floodplain you don't have to worry about the £12.5m cut in flood management revenue over the next two years. But the knock-on effects will be felt in other spheres of the environment.

The teams who manage flood defences also carry out river maintenance, including weed cutting and de-silting. This enables flood flows to be conveyed away, enhances the river's ecology and supports fish stocks. The teams provide wider incident response too – containing river pollution or aerating watercourses to prevent fish deaths from low oxygen levels. So cutting flood risk funds will inevitably affect the health of our rivers and Britain's largest participant sport, angling.

But what if flood risk management funding was protected and the cuts fell more heavily on those who regulate waste industries, for example? It is obvious that the quality of life for many communities would be affected if waste crime was un-policed or waste management sites lacked control.

The UK's world-class flood warning service relies on staff from all functions to provide an out-of-hours service. These include waste management or contaminated land experts – all experienced and competent in providing the flood warning service.

From radioactive waste management to bathing water quality and water resources management, the Environment Agency relies on all functions and activities to support each other, and wherever the cuts fall, the effects will be felt across the organisation's services and across the country. //

http://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2013/oct/16/environment-agency-cuts-spending-review-impact

So if anyone should resign over the floods, it should be George Osborne.
Cameron blames Labour because of something they did 15 years ago. Pickles blames the EA without mentioning reduced budgets.

Seems like everyone's to blame but the government. That should cheer up the worthy folk of Somerset.
A witch until? Did you mean 'witch hunt'?

1 to 7 of 7rss feed

Do you know the answer?

End Of The Ea?

Answer Question >>