In the week the Environment Food and Rural Affairs committee released their findings on the flooding, Rebecca Pow, Prospective Conservative MP for Taunton Deane has been out to see how the dredging operation was progressing on the River Tone.

‘I am pleased to see that teething problems seem to have been ironed out and this complex dredging operation is now moving on apace.  It will be speeded up further when some extra people start work so that there will be 6 ‘Land and Water’ teams altogether working on the 8 km stretch of the Rivers Tone and Parrett designated for dredging.  In addition a waterborne vehicle will begin shortly to reach areas the excavator cannot get to. This year’s devastating flooding on the Levels really shows that we must protect our countryside as much as our towns from flooding, something I am pleased to see the DEFRA committee has highlighted this week in its report.  It is also crucial that money is spent not just on capital flood protection works but on maintenance. The next big step will be to decide how maintenance work is going to be funded in future.’ 

Rebecca, who is a rural journalist, met with representatives from the Environment Agency and local farmer, Heather Venn who farms at Stoke St Gregory. Heather saw 80% of her 380 acre farm disappear under water for over 4 months destroying vital pasture land for her beef cattle.  Despite applying for grant aid through the Farm Recovery Fund for re-seeding and vital equipment in March she still hasn’t received any money and fears their business will go under:

 ‘To be told that there’s no system in place for actually paying out the Government money is disgusting. We will be lucky if we don’t go under. You just get to a point where you just don’t know what to do next.’

 Rebecca Pow plans to raise this issue with Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Owen Paterson.