Waterway management set to be made simpler

The government is drawing up a plan to make it easier for farmers to prevent flooding by maintaining watercourses.


Poorly maintained rural waterways had caused unnecessary flooding to farmland, said DEFRA secretary Owen Paterson. Some waterways hadn’t been properly maintained for five or six years, he told MPs investigating the government’s policies towards flooding.


“I am not absolutely not pointing the finger at anyone but we definitely have a problem with rural waterways that have been allowed to get blocked up allowing agricultural land to be flooded and which could actually lead to assets such as bridges being washed away.”


It was clear the Environment Agency was operating on a directive from the last government to concentrate its efforts on areas where lives were at risk, rather than on low-risk rural areas, said Mr Paterson. But that didn’t mean all waterways were the agency’s responsibility.


“I am not absolutely not pointing the finger at anyone but we definitely have a problem with rural waterways that have been allowed to get blocked up allowing agricultural land to be flooded and which could actually lead to assets such as bridges being washed away.”
Owen Paterson

A plan detailing who is responsible for keeping each particular river clear will now be drawn up with Environment Agency bosses. Mr Paterson met Environment Agency chief executive Paul Leinster to discuss the issue on Monday (25 March).


“Part of that is making it easy for farmers and landowners,” said Mr Paterson. “Sometimes it takes too long to get permission. There is all this stuff about treating silt dug out of a brook as if it is waste, when for centuries it has just been dumped on the bank or spread on the field.”


Signalling an increased role for internal drainage boards, Mr Paterson said low-risk rural waterways had been neglected – often because responsibility for maintenance had been moved “further up the tree”, when it should have rested with the landowner.


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