-----Original Message-----
From: Harry Buckland
Sent: 13 August 2009 16:22
To: Ewan Larcombe
Subject: RE: Further responses to Floods & Water Bill

Joyce Grenfell in one of her immortal monologues debated anarchy. "An interesting idea " she mused "But who would see to the drains?" The idea that a hotchpotch of inadequately trained local authorities with little hydrological expertise and differing financial priorities could agree on flood prevention measures is, I suggest, a recipe for inaction. Flood plains are geographical entities which do not respect private, parish, county, or even national boundaries.
 
Which of course explains why for the last 100 years IDBs, NRAs and the rest have campaigned for an over-arching national authority. Only now, after BSE, the RPA fiasco, Blue Tongue and the rest, and in hock to the Treasury does DEFRA and the Environment Agency seek to hive of their responsibilities to Local Authorities. They should not be allowed to get away with it.
 
Harry Buckland