the End of the Environment Agency ...as we know it ...

[RLWP]

Seems like the EA budget isn't too bad but too much of it has gone on perks and PR and zero on required dredging in some places.

 

Reminds me a bit of British Waterways and their ill fated computer system.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

 

I'm curious, where have you found the breakdown of their expenditure?

 

Richard

[OldGoldy]

That's the problem though and not wishing to enlarge this topic but to illustrate. We have local councillors asking their electorate about what cuts they should make to keep within Government imposed cuts and spending limits rather than either doing what they were elected to do OR (more to the point) open;y saying their task is impossible so they are unable to carry on. Then there are a variety of Social Services scandals where it seem clear to me that jobs were not being done as they should be because of lack of funds - no Director seems to have resigned, they mostly try to scape goat overworked staff. Now lets consider certain NHS senior managers. What about the Probation Service etc. That is before we get to Ministers and other senior Government office holders.

 

I would like to hope that when it becomes clear to a senior manager or director that the task they have accepted can not be satisfactorily done (for whatever reason) they make it clear what they attribute that to and resign. They should not keep stuffing their pockets and make excuses about doing the best they can - and so on! However it seems pocket stuffing is now more important than public service, ethics and so on.

 

IME - nor do they seem to be passing it back UP the management structure - or the more senior they are, the deafer they become!

 

greenie4U!!

[Jambo]

I would like to hope that when it becomes clear to a senior manager or director that the task they have accepted can not be satisfactorily done (for whatever reason) they make it clear what they attribute that to and resign. They should not keep stuffing their pockets and make excuses about doing the best they can - and so on! However it seems pocket stuffing is now more important than public service, ethics and so on.

 

I don't get why they should resign. If it was a screw up on their part then they have responsibility for their actions and they should resign. But here the fault lies squarely with the government as we're talking about budgets being aggressively squeezed which necessarily leads to a reduction in delivery. In this case the government were expecting the private sector to step in and make up the shortfall but it's difficult to see why this would happen.

 

If the world worked as you suggest it should it would basically mean that every director, chief exec and chairman of every publicly funded body in the UK would have resigned since the current government came into power because all have suffered massive cuts in budgets. I don't see what the benefit would be of those people resigning.

[smileypete]

 

I'm curious, where have you found the breakdown of their expenditure?

 

Richard

 

C'mon, why no do some legwork yourself, you don't need to look very far....

 

House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts Environment Agency: Building and maintaining river and coastal flood defences in England

 

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmpubacc/175/175.pdf

 

'Despite an increase in funding from £303 million in 2001–02 to £550 million in 2005-06,

spending fell to £483 million in 2006–07 (an increase in real terms of some 40% in five

years), the state of flood defences in England has not improved markedly. The funds

available for starting new defence schemes are limited, as most are already committed to

ongoing schemes. In 2007–08, only 33 new projects are expected to start, at a cost of £20.2

million, with 84% of funds utilised on existing schemes. Some flood defences remain in a

poor condition and over half of the high risk flood defence systems, such as those

protecting urban areas, are not in their target condition, with consequent risks should a

flood occur.

The Agency was not able to show that its maintenance teams were deployed efficiently or

that they focused their resources on high risk flood defence systems. The Agency maintains

62% of the total length of raised defences and 37% of the 46,000 flood defence structures.

Flood protection also relies in part upon defences owned by private landowners, but whilst

the Agency inspects third party maintained defences, it does not necessarily notify the

relevant parties of defects identified during its inspections.

Taken together, the problems set out above played an important part in contributing to the

Agency’s failure to protect homeowners sufficiently from flooding in summer 2007.'

 

Sounds like history is repeating itself five years later

 

BTW Don't you think your signature is a bit rude to Dan who puts a lot of time and effort into running the forum.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

[Paul G2]

 

no, silly - sell dredgers/sack dredgers drivers/employ agency/private contractors/fattencronies wallets

 

They do this same scam here in the US. The suggestion that private contractors do things any cheaper or better has been proved to be false. All it does is make the fat cats fatter.

 

There are certain things government does better than anyone. Maintaining our infrastructure and facilities is one of them.

[mark99]

If Somerset was a pork pie factory area it would be dredged.

[luctor et emergo]

If Somerset was a pork pie factory area it would be dredged.

[Phil Ambrose]

 

They do this same scam here in the US. The suggestion that private contractors do things any cheaper or better has been proved to be false. All it does is make the fat cats fatter.

 

There are certain things government does better than anyone. Maintaining our infrastructure and facilities is one of them.

Just out of interest, the Broads Authority bought all the machinery from May Gurney and now do all their own dredging, piling etc etc so bucking the trend

Phil

[river dragonfly]

Don't knock all of the EA Isn't this a case of the poor hard working Indians being let down by the fat chiefs?

[smileypete]

Don't knock all of the EA Isn't this a case of the poor hard working Indians being let down by the fat chiefs?

 

Agreed, when times were good the number of chiefs grown and grown, and now in lean times all the cuts have been passed though to the indians on the front line.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

[RLWP]

 

BTW Don't you think your signature is a bit rude to Dan who puts a lot of time and effort into running the forum.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

No

 

I can't see the bit about perks, PR or zero spending

 

While we are on the subject, smpt?

 

Richard

Don't knock all of the EA Isn't this a case of the poor hard working Indians being let down by the fat chiefs?

The fat chief doesn't work for EA, he's the local government minister

 

Richard

[fudd]

Isn't there some b****y silly EU rule that prevents dredging ditches and similar watercourses in the way that had been done for several decades at least?

 

Didn't the EA spend an alleged £20 million on creating / preserving a bird sanctuary in Somerset meaning there was nothing left in the kitty to carry out the essential dredging even if it were allowed?

 

The "blame game" makes good headlines but the people who know are those that live there and in the main, they have been ignored because they are not organised well enough to have their say heard by those who draw the purse strings.

 

Edit for spellin errer

I'm probably wrong, I normally am on things political, but , is it not an EU directive that dredging spoil must be treated as contaminated waste? If so it would be very very expensive to dispose of.

[Guest]

Interesting to see Mr. Pickles try and claim he has 'never been critical of the EA' when challenged in the Commons today.

 

Short memory or what?

[Tony Brooks]

 

I don't get why they should resign. If it was a screw up on their part then they have responsibility for their actions and they should resign. But here the fault lies squarely with the government as we're talking about budgets being aggressively squeezed which necessarily leads to a reduction in delivery. In this case the government were expecting the private sector to step in and make up the shortfall but it's difficult to see why this would happen.

 

If the world worked as you suggest it should it would basically mean that every director, chief exec and chairman of every publicly funded body in the UK would have resigned since the current government came into power because all have suffered massive cuts in budgets. I don't see what the benefit would be of those people resigning.

 

 

No, that is not what I am suggesting unless you are saying that no publicly funded body has had cuts to such an extent they can not do their job properly.

 

I think we all suspect that the ongoing funding cuts are or will be so deep they will be impacting the ability to deliver the service - as admitted by the EA bod and kind of supported by the report about the 2008 EA policy document re the Somerset Levels. To stay in post when you know you are not doing the job properly is just plain dishonest.

 

See the minor ripples when a few pretty inconsequential female Tory MPs say they will not stand again and then think about what the press would say as chairman after chairman plus hopefully their boards resigned giving the lack of funding to do their jobs as a reason

 

All I know is that when it became obvious that I was being required to "fudge" exam and test results with pressure to be a bit creative with class registers I got out even though I feel and I have been subsequently told I was doing a good job otherwise. It is just immoral to take money and not do the job that is needed rather than what is supposedly "affordable". Resign and let someone who may be better have a go.

 

I think the EA are doing the best they can with what they got but unless they stand up to be counted no one will know what the shortfalls are until it is too late. Those pumps for Bridgewater that will allow pumping at all states of the tide should have been in some king of strategic reserve and ready for deployment, not wait until it is too late and then get them from Holland. That talk about a power station at Burghfield kind of shows just how vulnerable the AWE Burghfield works may be and as a somewhat local resident I do not want their "floor sweepings" coming my way but it seems suitable pumps may not be available to protect it. The local fire service pumps had been sent to Somerset.

[Androo]

Call me a cynic, but what a coincidence that, Owen Patterson has conveniently had an operation on his eye just when this is at boiling point. Mate of Cameron, Pickles is not

 

Conclusion: Pickles scapegoat!

[madcat]

Pickles is not a hard target to miss, who ate all the pies indeed. Lot of bacon on that pig

[andywatson]

Yes he's a right porker isn't he. Mind you he's an anorexic compared to the all time record holder:

 

Waddle forward please:

 

All 29 Stones of him.

 

Drum roll.

 

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