Environment Agency: 'Could have done better over flooding'

As well as the chair of the Environment Agency, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson also admitted today that his department "can always do better" in dealing with the flooding crisis.

Mr Paterson had come under pressure from Shadow Environment Secretary Maria Eagle, who told the Commons: "People are increasingly asking if the Secretary of State is up to his job."

ITV News political correspondent Carl Dinnen reports:

ITV News correspondent Dan Rivers took to a boat on the swollen River Parrett in Somerset to hear from the people living along its banks who feel let down by the Environment Agency.

"It feels like we're being forgotten, left behind, and that we don't matter," one resident said.

"We'll never be able to keep the Somerset Levels dry in every eventuality but we can certainly try and do better than we've been able to do up until now," Environment Agency chair Lord Smith admitted today.

"I can absolutely understand the frustration that people feel," he said in an interview with ITV News political correspondent Carl Dinnen.

Environment Agency chairman Lord Smith has admitted "we probably have not done as much as we should have done" to dredge the rivers around the Somerset Levels.

He told Sky News: "I haven't yet been, in the last four weeks, to the Somerset Levels but I have been to the Somerset Levels on three occasions in the course of the last year and will be going back there."

Asked if the Environment Agency had been wrong up until now he said: "We probably have not done as much as we should have done up to now and I regret that. But we have had very difficult choices to make, reducing budgets to cope with.

"What we now need to do is work together with others, because it is not something just for the Environment Agency, we need to work with others in order to address the issues for the future."

Pumping continued today at Burrowbridge on the Somerset Levels. Military personnel were drafted into the area last week so assess the situation.

Owen Paterson went on to praise the under-fire Environment Agency for its response to widespread flooding:

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said the Government is currently spending £100,000 a week on "pumping operations" in the moors and levels in Somerset.

Mr Paterson was responding to an urgent question in the Commons.

Thieves, thought to be travelling in boats, have been targeting flood victims on the Somerset Levels, police have said.Around 600 gallons of domestic heating oil was stolen from a farm in Moorland overnight from Friday to Saturday.

Two fire service quad bikes were taken from Burrowbridge on the same night.

Chief Superintendent Caroline Peters, of Avon and Somerset Police, who is heading the response to the floods major incident, said: "We are aware of reports in the community of suspicious people and vehicles being seen in the area, particularly after dark.

"We have also heard rumours of people being out in boats at night, but at this stage we have no information to substantiate that."

Last night, the national police air service (NPAS) helicopter flew over the flood-hit area as a "proactive crime prevention exercise".

Police horses have also been deployed and officers will make regular patrols for a "high-visibility presence" and to reassure residents.

Environment Agency chairman Lord Smith said there is "no bottomless purse" on flood defences, meaning that "difficult decisions" had to be made on which areas to protect.