In today's Western Daily Press, Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger pens his weekly letter to Farming Minister George EustIce against the audible background of dredgers at work on the Parrett and Tone as a result of the Environment Agency's neglect.
Well, what a difference a couple of months makes! Not so long ago all we were getting from the Environment Agency was "dredging doesn't make any difference: dredging wouldn't have stopped the flooding", etc., etc.
Now, as you will doubtless have observed, it's all hands to the dredgers because – according to that very agency – unless the rivers are unclogged we could get more of the same next winter.
Amid all this I detect middle managers scurrying round to cover their own backs because clearly someone, somewhere has crassly agreed to a policy change which has unleashed millions of pounds of damage, wrecked homes (five at least have had to be demolished) and pushed businesses onto the rocks.
Whether we shall actually get to the bottom of who did what and who agreed to it, I have my doubts, because the usual form in these cases is to discover that whoever it was who dropped an almighty clanger has retired/gone to work in America/died.
And although it is slightly heartening to see the fine mess the Environment Agency has got the Levels into being cleaned up, the early indications are not that positive. Locals say the rivers need to be deepened as well as widened, and calculations carried out on the basis of the information supplied by the EA suggest that the beneficial effects of this year's dredging programme will be somewhat restricted.
Specifically, there are concerns that no dredging is being planned south of Langport, yet this is precisely where the first problems of the winter occurred. It's well off my patch, of course, but I certainly share the concerns of those in the Thorney/Muchelney area. And I have to repeat it, George: if any shilly-shallying, any spurious excuses as to why things may not be done, any over-quoting of stupid health-and-safety restraints are reported to me I shall be down on the EA like a ton of sludge.
While the disaster is going to take months to clear up, I think local people should congratulate themselves on having run such an effective campaign that the EA has been forced to retreat, rewrite its policies and get on with the work.
This should be a salutary lesson to the agency about the effectiveness of people power, and I hope it has also learned another one: that Somerset inhabitants are not ones to be bamboozled or to have the wool pulled over their eyes.
The agency should not luxuriate too fulsomely in having got itself off the hook by agreeing to dredge what is widely regarded hereabouts as a token eight kilometres. Neither the locals nor I will be off its back until the whole job is completed.
You can read this article in full on the Western Daily Press website