HAVING seen the latest television reports and the Oxford Mail report (November 26) regarding flooding in and around Oxford, the big question that has to be asked of the Environment Agency is just how many miles of river dredging has taken place in this area over the last 12 months?

It is a sad fact that all our rivers and tributaries are incredibly still bunged up solid with silt and rubbish, some even closing over with weeds and rushes, resulting in water run-off.

This is nothing short of mis-managment by the Environment Agency on a colossal scale.

The Environment Agency knows full well that this is a problem which is going to happen year after year.

It has been sadly proven. To continue to mis-use scarce Government funding on printing leaflets and monitoring equipment located in large offices instead of implementing an adequate reliable water flow maintenance programme is so very, very wrong.

I am not saying that the present flood problems could or would have been totally averted, but the water levels would have most certainly been reduced in these areas if waterways had been cleared and maintained to a good level so as to allow water to be carried away in channels made adequately deep and wide enough to cope. Cutting back a few tree branches each year is simply not adequate.

Let’s not forget that the Victorians used these waterways to transport goods in and around Oxford – local history books prove this fact.

It is a sad fact that now you would be hard pressed to float a tin bath in most of the rivers and tributaries in this area, that’s if you are lucky enough to get through the weeds and rushes to even be able to launch it.

The Victorians managed adequate waterway maintenance programmes.

What is stopping the Environment Agency from doing it now?