Dredging of the Somerset Levels begins

Dredging of the Somerset Levels begins Credit: Ben Birchall/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Three months after the Somerset Levels was struck by the worst floods in 250 years dredging of the rivers has begun. Huge diggers began scooping silt from a 200 meter stretch of the River Parrett near Burrowbridge this morning. Environment Agency (EA) engineers will clear a total of eight kilometres of the river and the neighbouring River Tone in the programme which is expected to take several months.Angry locals blame a lack of dredging by the EA for the floods which destroyed their homes after the heaviest January rainfall on record but the EA has insisted that dredging would not have prevented the flood crisis.

It is hoped the huge £5.8million dredging will improve the capacity of the rivers - currently operating at just 60 per cent - and reduce flooding in the future. The work is on a key part of the river which has been specially chosen because "significant amounts" of silt have built up.The hoard of specialist equipment has been hired from private company Land and Water Plant.

Specialist equipment used in dredging Credit: Ben Birchall/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Paul Leinster, chief executive of the Environment Agency, said today marked an "important milestone" in work to reduce the risk of flooding in the future.

Watch aerial footage of the dredging below:

Many residents are still unable to return to their wrecked homes. Gav Sadler, father-of-two from Moorland and founding member of Flooding on the Levels Action Group (FLAG), welcomed the action but called for more "transparency".

The action is just the start of a 20-year £100million plan - the Somerset Levels and Moors Flood Action Plan- to ensure their homes are never engulfed by murky flood waters ever again.It was commissioned by Environment Secretary Owen Paterson and includes a new tidal barrier and the raising key roads.