Head of Environment Agency - resign?

[aspenarb]

These guys that head these departments are running with their shoe laces tied together . The red tape and B@llS@@t mountains soak up most of the funds for these works , the paperwork involved in getting the most basic projects of the ground is mind numbing. If and when the governments ,councils and other works departments cut this utter nonsense we may see value for money structured services return. Until then most of the funding for any work on ditches, rivers and roads will be used up by paper pushers.

 

Bob

[shavey]

These guys that head these departments are running with their shoe laces tied together . The red tape and B@llS@@t mountains soak up most of the funds for these works , the paperwork involved in getting the most basic projects of the ground is mind numbing. If and when the governments ,councils and other works departments cut this utter nonsense we may see value for money structured services return. Until then most of the funding for any work on ditches, rivers and roads will be used up by paper pushers.

 

Bob

 

very true :thumbup:

[Mark Bolam]

I blame gay marriage.

[ecotreecare]

I blame gay marriage.

 

I blame Mark Bolam

[Peasgood]

He is the head of the EA and the buck stops with him.

As to whether it is fair or not, he is happy to take any credit and pay sent his way.

I think there would be a different view if he had kept his promises and had been seen to actually trying to get things done.

 

I have a couple of water courses through my land. Both used to be cleared and maintained by a gang of 4 men each winter. They cut any vegetation and if needed they dug it out by hand.

I knew these guys and always thought they were on very good pay and didn't really think they worked hard. They sat in the van doing nothing if it rained, in case they got wet!

 

Then they were taken over by machinery. For a few years an independant firm had the contract. They had quite brutal machinery, they wizzed through the place and were gone. The job was done though.

 

Then the EA got the contract back. I have never seen such a useless bunch of lazy feckers! They sit in the van for all but one hour a day. They come as a gang of three men to work one 360 digger. It takes a whole day to change a weeding bucket to a dredging bucket (should take 30 minutes at most), and when they do actually use the machine you can't even tell what they did.

The gang of 4 men doing it by hand were quicker and as I say, they didn't work hard.

 

They wind me up so much that I don't let them park in my yard any more.

Truth is that it isn't them I should be cross with, it is their managers that are at fault and I believe that goes right to the top.

Yes, sack him!

[Peasgood]

ps. I have never seen the water courses that run through my land in such a terrible state. One of them bursts it's banks regularly as it is choked with silt, the other doesn't run as it should.

I break the law by doing it myself when needed with a 3 ton digger.

They claim it is for "environmental" reasons and argue that funds aren't there anyway. Well the wildlife is not better than it used to be, it is worse off now. As for funds, if the people here did the work they are being paid to do the job would be done with current funds. (those wasted funds come out of your pockets)

[bumble B]

Why?

 

Did he make it rain persistently for the last two months. Given that this IS the wettest winter EVER! Digging ditches, dredging rivers can only do so much. Our river systems can only drain so much water, before it rains again & then again..... when it rains inches at a time several times a week for two months it can only go one way, across the surrounding land.

 

Let us not forget that the EA has been underfunded for years, and in the current climate,. where the current Government has had to make severe cuts to clear up the mess left behind by the last. That government took off the shackles on the banks allowing them a free hand to undertake "casino" banking, whilst at the same time spending more money than they were making on popularist social re-engineering that in the long run have benefitted no-one.

 

When there is not a pot to p**s in, its hard to give the EA and others the tools to do a proper job. An empty pot, will not produce a magic sponge to mop up all the water, nor will it make the conveyor belt of Atlantic weather fronts either disappear or move further North or South.

 

The only constructive thing the Government could do today to help alleviate some of the problems, is to divert some of the "ring fenced" multi billion pound overseas aid budget to helping those British citizens and taxpayers that are suffering so badly in the affected areas right now.

 

I cannot understand or accept why the British government is sending money to countries like India, to help support and educate millions of impoverished Indians, when that same country is spending billions on nuclear weapons and space exploration. Charity should begin at home, and we should make those who are suffering in our country are our first priority.

 

Don't forget Lord DooDah couldn't afford 5m to dredge rivers but could afford 31m to build a bird sanctuary. Money could have been spent wiser.

[aspenarb]

ps. I have never seen the water courses that run through my land in such a terrible state. One of them bursts it's banks regularly as it is choked with silt, the other doesn't run as it should.

I break the law by doing it myself when needed with a 3 ton digger.

They claim it is for "environmental" reasons and argue that funds aren't there anyway. Well the wildlife is not better than it used to be, it is worse off now. As for funds, if the people here did the work they are being paid to do the job would be done with current funds. (those wasted funds come out of your pockets)

 

There is a stream that runs through my place ,the EA used to send 4 guys down here every year with cutters and hand tools to clear all vegetation / debris etc. Its nearly a mile long and it was my responsibility to gather up and dispose of the arising. I have not seen them in 20 years now so I just do it with a 360. Some knob stopped me a while ago and told me I was destroying the natural habitat.What could be worse for the banks habitat flooding or me on a machine once a year?

 

Bob

[easy-lift guy]

Seems to me this situation is caused by 3 things. Mother Nature, incompetent government officials, which has a trickle down affect, last of all people and developers foolish and selfish enough to be allowed to establish homesteads in areas seemingly below sea level in the first place. I see the same thing occurring at so many levels here stateside.

Really makes me sick. Even more so the hand ringing and finger pointing before, during and after the fact!. Appalling. If little or no maintenance can be done to keep the results of Mother Nature in check, any and all affected parties living in said flood planes must sign a waiver of release for any future claims of responsibility. The government must either provide for proper funding to maintain the land and water ways or, buy back all of the land from the owners and condemn, until such time a responsible government actually willing to pull their collective heads from their backsides are willing to serve the needs of the citizens and not them selfs.

easy-lift guy

[Inoff the Red]

To answer the question, yes he should resign (but because he has no integrity he won't).

We have degenerated into a system where "old" politicians get looked after by the system when the leave/get kicked out of Parliament.

 

Lord Smith of Finsbury was never the sharpest tool in the box and was an ineffective MP. When he stood down he picked up several nice little earners to keep in the style to which he had become accustomed, for example Chairman of the EA, Chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority, board member of the PPL.

 

His comments about not resigning "because there was a lot of work to do in the EA" were the ramblings of a buffoon; He has been in post for 6 years and apart from spending an obscene amount of cash on a bird sanctuary (I wonder were all that money REALLY went!) he has enjoyed the trappings of his post without actually doing anything to reduce the flood risk.

 

We had an example a week ago of how these people think when the contract of the head of Offsted was not renewed. Instead of accepting the decision this harridan started bleating to the media claiming that her removal was a political decision….no recognition of the problems within Odffsted, no acceptance that after 4 years it was probably time for a new approach, she was pissed off because she had lost her easy £100k pa for 3 days work a week.

 

These cretins with no idea of how the real world operates mooch from placement to placement, earning big bucks for doing f*** all. When they get kicked off the gravy train they whinge; when they are exposed as being incompetent they do not even have the decency to resign.