Added 16/10/2009     

Letter to National Audit Office about Myrke Embankment condition.

                                                                                   28 September 2009

                                                                                    Ewan Larcombe

67 Lawn Close

                                                                                    Datchet SL3 9LA

                                                                                    Tel       01753 544302 (home)

                                                                                                07968 661431 (mob)

Amyas Morse
Comptroller and Auditor General
Private Office
National Audit Office

151 Buckingham Palace Road
London    SW1W 9SS

Dear Sir

Complaint about EA expenditure –

Sub-standard Jubilee River/Myrke flood bank reconstruction.

About five years ago I wrote to the NAO about the Environment Agency spending £1.3m to dismantle and rebuild 300m of sub-standard flood bank that should have been designed and built correctly in the first place.  The original embankment construction had only been in place for a few years, and was on the verge of collapse during the first flood event in January 2003.  The embankment reconstruction in 2004 was implemented without benefit of a planning application, and therefore without local authority and public scrutiny.

I believe that this new embankment is of sub-standard design and/or construction and is degrading fast, and that the Environment Agency has wasted public money.

I have attached a series of numbered photographs as follows:

1          31/10/2004 - embankment during reconstruction.

2          26/12/2004 - embankment after reconstruction.

3          27/9/2009 - recent photograph of embankment.

4          27/9/09 – close-up photograph showing exposed geo-textile reinforcement.

I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours faithfully

Ewan Larcombe