Added 26/12/2008

The EA is introducing new CFMP policies.  In my opinion, the consultation process is flawed, and the policy information dissemination process so discreet that it is invisible.

From Ewan Larcombe, 67 Lawn Close, Datchet SL3 9LA   Tel. 01753 544302. 21/12/2008

Dear Sir

Beware of your M.P.

No that’s not your Member of Parliament - they are your friend and here to help.  The M.P. I am referring to is your Management Plan – in fact your Environment Agency Catchment Flood Management Plan (CFMP).

The EA continues to surpass itself in terms of devious and underhanded tactics.  In the past I have accused the EA ‘Maskirovka’ (dis-information) [please see below] Department of working overtime, and being Black/White experts.  I also thought they had progressed beyond ‘a good day to issue bad news’ but we now have the reverse i.e. ‘a bad day to issue good news’ or indeed even ‘no news at all’.

World financial and economic crisis, increasing debt and unemployment, reducing interest rates and stealth taxes have enabled the EA to implement significant changes to flood defence policy and responsibility with hardly a murmur from the people affected.

So what’s the problem?

In particular the EA have created about 70 CFMP’s that cover England.  Each CFMP is broken down into policy areas with a specific policy imposed on each area.

For example Windsor and Maidenhead are covered by Policy 3 which states: Continue with existing or alternative actions to manage flood risk at the current level (accepting that flood risk will increase overtime from this baseline).

Worse still, vast areas of agricultural land upstream of Oxford are covered by Policy 6 which states: Take action to increase the frequency of flooding to deliver benefits locally or elsewhere, which may constitute an overall flood risk reduction (for example local habitat inundation).

The EA may claim to have consulted on these CFMP’s, but this discreet consultation process is bettered only by the lack of publicity associated with the introduction of these new policies.

And now using a Ministerial announcement on the last day of Parliament before the recess, the EA have passed responsibility for flood defence back to the Local Authorities.

You have been warned.  Need I say any more?

'Maskirovka' letter

18 December 2005 - from Ewan Larcombe, 67 Lawn Close, Datchet SL3 9LA

Dear Sir

Maskirovka* is alive and well, and indeed the Environment Agency (EA) is now developing the practice into an art form. Aided and abetted by other authorities including the Thames Region Flood Defence Committee (RFDC), the obfuscation and filibustering continues unabated on the £110m Jubilee River (JR) fiasco.

Recent publications from the EA disinformation department include a revised JR operating procedure and yet another set of River Thames flood risk maps, both of which are of questionable quality and value, except of course to the insurance companies who will be demanding increased premiums because your home is shown within the flood risk area. (If you are unhappy with your increased premiums, I believe you can obtain more detailed flood risk information directly from the EA but predictably this service is not free.)

Did you know that in mid 2004 Defra circulated and invited responses to a strategy consultation document that considered the adverse human and economic consequences of flooding? Called ‘Making Space for Water’ the main themes were risk management, the sustainable approach, planning and building, and public awareness. Open for comments for a three month period that closed on November 1 2004, by accident or design the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead apparently neither submitted a response themselves nor passed the document on to their Parish Councils.

So what good is a nationwide consultation on flooding if it fails to reach those people who are most affected?

*Maskirovka – a Soviet military term for disinformation and deception.

Ewan Larcombe

Added 1/1/2006 MASKIROVKA - A set of processes designed to mislead, confuse, and interfere with accurate data collection regarding all areas of plans, objectives, strengths, and weaknesses (of a force organization or nation).  Also called SOVIET MASKIROVKA.  [10:2974]