Lord (Chris) Smith must go

In Australia there is no rural fire service, all the local farmers are local fire wardens and are expected to turn out to fight fires in their area. It would be different in or near major cities and in major incidents, but it would not be feasible to cover such huge areas so the locals have to look after their own interests to a large extent.

The chair of an organisations does not normally have executive power. Combining the roles is seen as bad idea in the corporate world. It is not the role of the chair to write the business plan, decide priorities, motivate staff, cheer up the customers etc - the chair is there, along with other board members/governors etc to oversee the work of the executive, challenge their plans and their budgets and monitor their performance against plans and budgets.
All this blaming is getting very tedious. On the BBC last night they were marvelling that some communities in the Thames were helping themselves, ordering a lorry load of sand, filling sand bags, helping weaker members of the community etc. The implication was that "they" should have been doing this. In Australia the self-help mindset is the prevailing one not the whinging that someone else should be doing it. After the Brisbane floods thousands of young people turned out with mops and brooms to help flooded households and areas clean up. A small rural community had got out their diggers and built banks to protect the town from the flood waters in the southern part of Australia. The press there emphasise the way communities pull together and help themselves.With budget cuts on local authorities continuing to bite deeper and deeper it is no use expecting that they will be able to be a bottomless resource of help in times of trouble. It does not help people to cope I think, all this blaming and complaining - rather the reverse, it makes them feel more helpless in the face of natural disasters.

Thanks mamie

Oh I see, but hopefully we have established that the chairman has no real power, so what Baroness Young suggested, and I have no knowledge of that, would not have held any up, unless the government department directed it so.

It would interesting to know that. I certainly wouldn't expect the Chair to be responsible for claiming matched funding, though. I was an Ofsted inspector for many years and I was quite surprised to hear that there was a Chair of Ofsted. It certainly wasn't an executive role (if it existed in my day).
Whitewave, I just wanted to send best wishes to your son, who is doing a very difficult job in trying circumstances.
The problem is that media and ministerial attacks on Chris Smith impact negatively on the people on the ground. Not fair.

I think the wildlife before people remark was directected more towards the previous incumbent, whitewave, ie Baroness Young, not at EA staff.

Can I just interject here - a little late? Of course the floods in the Thames area will get more attention, and, I bet, more money. That is middle England and that is where the votes and the money are.

Interesting article in "The Times2" today on the history of the Somerset levels.

That is the question I think we need to ask ourselves and is true of other government agencies. We may for instance think them necessary as a representative of a particular organization, this of course does not require detailed and specialized knowledge. However I am not convinced and think that the function should fall to the department minister, who after all is responsible for and should be held accountable for all due processes. Having a chairman deflects anger from those truly responsible - as we have so graffically seen in the past few days

So what is the purpose of the Chair/Chris Smith in your view * Whitewave* ? And I mean that as a genuine question.

The chairman of most companies/agencies does not necessarily have expertise in the company that is usually the CEO or in the EA case the management team. His tenure is up in June and undoubtedly a Tory will be put in his place, just as there are Tories being given other high profile jobs in place of Labour bods. The new person will be just like Smith and only a head with no actual knowledge of the subject or if they do only at a low level. I think really the question is "Do we need a chairman at all?" The staff know this and so do not look to the chairman for leadership. Saying that, they are pleased that he spoke up for them after the Pickles debacle.
What matters to the EA staff is the leadership shown by their management,who aka have a high level of expertise and I think that you will find a good level of satisfaction.
POGS To also suggest that the EA put more emphasis on wildlife compare to people is nonsense. Why let the truth get in the way of a good yarn?

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

"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.

Good article Mamie
Cant remember margaretm74

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

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.

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.

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 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!"

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.