Did The Environment Agency Deliberately Increase Flooding?

In a 250-page document on flood risk the Environment Agency set out how it plans to deliberately increase flooding in the areas now worst affected, and appears to prioritise animals above people. The 2008 agency document shows the objective for the Levels was to ‘take action to increase the frequency of flooding to deliver benefits locally or elsewhere’. The policy was revealed as agency director of operations David Jordan angered residents yesterday by calling the flood defences a ‘success story’. --David Rose, Mail on Sunday, 9 February 2014

---

Britain’s Communities Secretary Eric Pickles says the government "made a mistake" and should have dredged the flood-hit Somerset Levels. He told the Andrew Marr Show it may have relied to much on the Environment Agency's advice and it now recognises that the area should have been dredged. He added: "I apologise unreservedly and I'm really sorry that we took the advice, we thought we were dealing with experts." --BBC News, 9 February 2014