Contribution by: Ian Severs

Comment by: Ian Severs

Focus area: Coastal investments and projects

Regulator concerned: Environment Agency

Comment:
The Environment Agency have given up responsibility for watercourses to the local council, the only problem is, the local council don’t seem to have been informed about their new responsibilities. I have been waiting for a watercourse, that is flooding land designated for housing, to be cleared since 2005. I’ve kept my part of the watercourse clear since buying the land in 1998, however, the blockage is on land not owned by me, so I’ve had to rely on the council to enforce the law on blocked watercourses with the offending landowners. After many promises and some letters from the council, nothing has been done and they don’t even bother to reply to me now. If councils are made to react quicker to developers problems then developement time can be halved, if not quatered and the development money can be used over and over again instead of being tied up for years in red tape and apathy.