I am sorry to creak the door again over last summer's floods, but when was the last time the Thames and its tributaries and relief channels were dredged?

I have been an angler for nearly 40 years and there isn't a part of the Thames that I haven't drowned a maggot.

I remember silt barges being towed down the river to empty their silty cargo.

I haven't seen that for years.

Recently, I came across a picture of me holding a perfect 8Ib tench in 1992 and in the background, you can clearly see a digger emptying a silt barge from the nearby Thames into a pit.

Apparently, that same year, a man sank up to his waist in the deposited silt while walking round the lake and I am led to believe that was when the dredging stopped.

The Environment Agency creams in a lot of cash over the year from rod licences - and that is not its only income.

So where's all the money going?

Europe, I suppose.

REID TUTTY Mortimer Drive Old Marston Oxford