Lord (Chris) Smith must go

You are SO wrong - Smith is not indispensable, but the work that the EA is doing is. Forget all this silly playground bullying and name calling and raise your eyes and game

Sorry.I am not saying that Smith is indispensable, nor am I dismissing the work the EA does. I have reread my original posting and do not understand why you read it the way you did.

The policy of the EA and its management decisions are made at a high level. The decisions reached in relation to the Somerset levels have been perverse. Its staff on the ground have been superb. I believe one MP referred to the staff of the EA as lions led by donkeys.

As I said this thread is about Chris Smith who has led the EA badly and when the problems started instead of being proactive going out to meet and talk to both staff and those affected by the flooding has just hunkered down behind his desk and blamed everybody but himself. He has even been unwilling to visit flooded areas to support his staff and talk to those affected by the floods

The EA is a very important agency, it does many good things. It deserves better management. The current chairman brings the agency into disrepute.

You have not read my comment on another thread. I have a declared interest in that my son is a Flood Management Officer for the EA. You are speaking in newspaper headlines and not with seemingly any real knowledge. Ask an EA bod about their management and they will have nothing but praise for their teams and management. Of course there is the usual office politics but morale is (or at least was) extremely high, with a large amount of pride in work done and planned. Unfortunately this week some energy has been taken up ensuring that this high morale continues. The EA has a workforce that is highly educated (in my sons office most have PHD's) and a deep commitment to the environment.
Ask any EA employee and they will tell you that what constrains them is government budget and guidelines. NOT management or chairman

whitewave, I don't understand your tirade either. FlicketyB states quite clearly in her OP that she thinks the EA workers have done their best - it's Smith who's incurred her wrath!

Yes I know exactly what "flick" is saying what I am saying in a nutshell is stop blaming it doesn't help the situation when a team's chairman and management is being slatted. It undermines morale.

Smith is only doing what his masters in DEFRA and the Treasury. Sad fact is that flood defence work has to be prioritised and there are only a few dozen houses affected in the Somerset levels and they are getting all the publicity. One commentator's take on this is that a small group of farmers in that area stand to gain a great deal in terms of their land values if there was a lot of investment.

Having a go at farmers again, JessM?

Levels and Moorland have been getting publicity because it has been flooded there for weeks and it is only recently that they have had help More populated areas in the Thames Valley have received help quickly jn comparjson. I put a post on another thread about one area shoutjng about anither and quite honestly it does not help, we need a jnited effort to get out of this mess and plan for the future. Excuse typos.

I've just read this interesting blog about maize-growing in the Somerset Levels and associated problems.

Just reporting a comment that I read in the paper today merlot - don't remember having a go at farmers before would you like to remind me?
But someone seems to have done a good job at keeping the area in the news every day. These things don't always just happen through spontaneous press imbalancedness.

I do not expect that the proper money will be invested in flood prevention here, as there are so few people living here that it would not be regarded as cost-effective. Our MP keeps banging on in parliament about the need for funds to be directed to rural areas more, even though it is sparsely populated.

What us need is proper drainage further up the village to prevent those of us who live lower down from constantly being at risk. And it all needs to be maintained properly.

We pay a very high council tax, when you consider that we have no mains drainage, no street lights, roads that are falling apart etc. I realise that we also have services that we do not use (e.g. a village school) and others that we do not yet use, but it is frustrating to fork out so much when the council still cannot afford the proper drainage needed. We always chuckle when the dustmen come and say "That's another £40 spent!"

I do not think the drainage comes out of your council tax, Mishap, you pay for that with your water rates. During the summer it was the council workers who were clearing out the culverts near where I live, and incidentally destroying lots of spotted orchids, but I presume they were under contract to the water board.

JessM, I suggested on another thread that we ought to be told which farmers should have cleared their drains and did not. Many farmers are tenant farmers and will only do what they are told by their overlords.

I think Moorland and the Levels were in the news every day because it was getting worse and worse there and they were not getting any help and no-one from the higher echelons seemed to be taking much notice - until PC went if you remember.

But now Thames Valley floods are spreading (horrendous there as well) I expect they will have plenty of publicity as well

I prefer my food to be produced in this country as far as possible. We need to protect rural areas as well as more densely populated areas for the fact that they are our food producers, and the fact that they are sparsely populated is a complete non-sequitor.

Unless we want to turn GB into a huge nature reserve and import all our food of course.
There has to be a balance. Farmers know their land and how it works, the EU from its lofty stance does not always know what is best for each area of Europe.
And one group of people in one area mudslinging at another group is not the way to go. Not saying anyone on here is doing it, but there are rumblings in the press, and from the friend who spoke to me today I got the distinct impression that the levels should be left to their fate and all resources concentrated on Thames Valley.

White wave

I am not playground bullying and name calling, and your comment raise your eyes and game is annoying. You are also condescending to think some of us are, in your own words, ' speaking in newspaper headlines and not with seemingly any real knowledge,.

Your son probably does a good job, I have not seen anybody in a newspaper or on the t.v who has not spoken with anything but praise for the hard working staff at ground level.

Yes there has been criticism of Lord Smith and past heads of the Environmental Agency . I for one do not shy away from the fact that I am one of those who has got a grievance which I direct at them. I can assure you that I have done so for many years, not just jumping on the bandwagon as you seem to be implying some people are doing.

There has been and will remain a situation with the Environment Agency that does put too much emphasis on wildlife above those of human habitat.

The people of the Somerset Levels/Moors have been warning for years, almost 2 decades that stopping dredging will cause this type of flooding and they have been proven right. I hope that if anything comes out of all this the running of the Levels and Moors returns to local control and they are not tied with one hand up their back trying to comply with this and that directive which hinders with their knowledge of how the Levels/Moors and rhynes work. They can't do any worse than the meddling that has taken place for far too long.

Jess M

Your comments on the flooding astound me once more.

You say 'A few dozen houses getting all the publicity' and I don't care if you do not put your name to the comment 'A small group of farmers stand to gain a great deal' , they are both comments I think you are happy to believe apply to that area. Do you have or ever have had any association with Somerset or a farming community I wonder.?

I think Moorland and the Levels were in the news every day because it was getting worse and worse there and they were not getting any help and no-one from the higher echelons seemed to be taking much notice - until PC went if you remember.

But now Thames Valley floods are spreading (horrendous there as well) I expect they will have plenty of publicity as well

I prefer my food to be produced in this country as far as possible. We need to protect rural areas as well as more densely populated areas for the fact that they are our food producers, and the fact that they are sparsely populated is a complete non-sequitor.

Unless we want to turn GB into a huge nature reserve and import all our food of course.
There has to be a balance. Farmers know their land and how it works, the EU from its lofty stance does not always know what is best for each area of Europe.
And one group of people in one area mudslinging at another group is not the way to go. Not saying anyone on here is doing it, but there are rumblings in the press, and from the friend who spoke to me today I got the distinct impression that the levels should be left to their fate and all resources concentrated on Thames Valley.

Which commentator was it, Jess? Would like to know who made such a crass statement at this sensitive time which has been heartbreaking as people lose their livelhoods. I'll bet he or she has never been further than Waitrose in Islington for his/her food which so miraculously appears on the shelves.

Those seeking to apportion blame might do well to read this article:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/11/floods-blame-game-show

Good article Mamie
Cant remember margaretm74

"People would know who is in charge and where to turn for help."

It strikes me that many of the people who are supposed to "be in charge" are actually poorly qualified for the job.
Would it be so difficult to have, for example, an engineer in charge of the environment agency or just someone who appears to have some actual , real knowledge on matters such as drainage ?

Almost forgot...this is the UK. We don't deal in specialists ! Next I'll be suggesting that we require our Education Secretary to have experience of teaching !

No, it's jobs for the boys. Leave it to the amateurs. Expertise is dangerous.

I am sorry whitewave we must agree to differ. When I worked for a public utility under stress, and press and media put their finger on the management, we were only too glad that someone was realising the problem wasn't the poor b****y infantry doing their best under management constraints but the idiots running the show.

I am well aware that many of the money constraints were above the EA but I started this thread because what has so angered me has been Chris Smith's total lack of leadership in this emergency. A good leader, gets out, gets about, encouraging staff, faces the difficult meetings with those affected and most of all LEADS, that is what he is paid to do. Instead Chris Smith has, as far as I know, skulked down to Somerset once without warning, avoiding meeting the local MP, local authorities and even most of those most affected by the floods and apart from that has stayed nice and warm and cosy behind his desk in London. He certainly hasn't been visiting Oxfordshire, or as far as I know Berkshire or any of the other places within a stones throw of London nor has been on the ground talking to staff. The EA deserve better.

I am no supporter of David Cameron, who has a far more demanding job, than Chris Smith but he has made at least half a dozen visits to flood affected areas and has cancelled a trip to the Middle East to deal with the problems and has the wit and intelligence to know that at times like this he needs to be seen to be leading from the front.

It is the very poor personal leadership shown by Chris Smith that has angered me, that is why I said this is not about the floods or the EA. 'he leads his regiment from behind, he finds it less exciting'. He should go now.

I think you are right Aka. I think there is a lack of respect for professional expertise in the UK. The article I linked to above also says this:
"The danger of shifting responsibility from ourselves is that in Britain it comes to rest only on an apparently all-seeing, all-knowing central government. In any other country, floods like these would have led to our screens being crowded with mayors, governors, councillors and civic leaders. Help would be the clear responsibility of local leadership. People would know who is in charge and where to turn for help."
I think it is all part of the culture of centralisation with a consequent failure to invest properly in local and regional government.
Then all central government, aided and abetted by the media, can do is to try and point the finger of blame at someone else.

Of course, this is not the only 'job' Chris Smith has, he is on the boards of several other organisations, therefore one would query whether or not he can perform any of them properly with the due diligence and insight required. Or indeed if he has any knowledge at all of what is required.

Fingers in too many pies?

I am at a bit of a loss to know how people are so certain about where Chris Smith has been, what he and been doing and to whom he has been talking, unless of course, they are his diary secretary?
The article above certainly doesn't think that he is the only person to blame.

I noticed he fluffed the question about match funding for the £4000,000 he was allocated for Somerset Levels. The way it is supposed to work is that 'match funding' is available for projects where for every £1 you put in the funders will match pound for pound. Had he bothered to chase this up it would effectively have doubled his budget. Total incompetence.