EU directives on dredging made this crisis worse, says Stephen Pollard. EXPRESS.
LISTEN to the Environment Agency or the Government and you will hear any number of reasons – excuses, you might call them – for the flooding that has devastated the North.
By STEPHEN POLLARD. They are a repeat of the same excuses (sorry, “reasons”) we heard in 2014 when the Somerset Levels and much of Devon were submerged.
According to Environment Agency chief executive David Rooke, the UK is moving from a period of “known extremes” of weather to one of “unknown extremes”.
But there is one reason that is never mentioned and it hinges on a word that officialdom dismisses with contempt.
It is a word that until recently was one of the most familiar to anyone who lived near a river but which has almost entirely disappeared over the past 15 years. The word is dredging.
The reason it is no longer mentioned is because since 2000 and the passing of the European Water Framework Directive dredging has been deemed to be an offence against the environment.
