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Environment Agency: 'Could have done better over flooding'

The Environment Agency chairman has admitted to ITV News that "we could have done better" in tackling the flooded areas in Somerset. But Lord Smith defended the agency's priorities, saying they were working with a "purse that was not limitless."

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Soldiers deployed to aid villages cut off by flooding

Soldiers are being deployed to Somerset to bring relief to villages cut off by flooding.The Government has agreed to send the Army to the Somerset Levels, which has seen 65 square kilometres of land swamped after the most significant flooding for 20 years.

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Specialist vehicles are being brought in so troops can deliver food villages. Credit: ITV News

Specialist vehicles are being brought in so troops can deliver food to stricken villagers, transport people and deliver sandbags. The Environment Secretary Owen Paterson spoke after a meeting of the Government's emergency Cobra committee.

He said: "The MoD and the Department for Local Government are discussing how we could deploy specialist vehicles which could help some of those villages which have been cut off, to help people travel backwards and forwards, to get fuel and food in and out, and to help with transport from dry land.

"And secondly, there will also be help with sandbags which could help prevent further flooding."

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