Thread by @GeorgeMonbiot

The Environment Agency's vandalism of the River Tone in Somerset in the name of "flood control" directly contravenes its own advice. But its advice, in a presentation called "River Dredging and Flood Defence", published in 2013, was deleted and censored by the government.
Thread/

I found a copy, and reproduced it here (see the Scribd link halfway down the article). theguardian.com/commentisfree/…. The EA was instructed to ignore the science and take an ideological approach set by the government. It continues to do so to this day.

The minister in charge at the time was Owen Paterson, the worst Environment Secretary we've ever had (and that's saying something). He was reported as saying “the purpose of waterways is to get rid of water”.
Never mind that he is now disgraced. His unscientific views prevail.

So the pain experienced by local people as they contemplate the destruction of their beautiful riverbanks is not a necessary sacrifice to prevent flooding downstream. It's likely to achieve the opposite, hurrying water down to the nearest urban pinchpoint.
theguardian.com/environment/20…

Flood mitigation policy is still heavily influenced by hurrumphing ignoramuses in Westminster and on the Internal Drainage Boards. Separate issues - flood control, land drainage and navigation - have been muddled up, and policy reflects ancient prejudices, not modern science.

Environment Agency bosses know perfectly well what they *should* be doing. But time and again, they bend to the will of their political masters. Local people get doubly harmed: they simultaneously lose their beautiful places and are made more vulnerable to flooding.