Relief as dredging gets underway

Sections of the River Parrett and the River Tone will have silt taken from their banks Credit: PA

Residents say they are "relieved and encouraged" by the start of dredging on the flood-hit Somerset Levels.

A team of workers and equipment - including one excavator from the Netherlands - began dredging a 200-yard stretch of river at 8am.

In all 400 thousand tons of silt is to be pulled and dredged out of the River Parrett and River Tone. It'll cover a five mile stretch from near Moorland up the Parrett and then the Tone towards Taunton. It'll cost at least five million pounds and take 7 months.

Contractors will work six days a week at eight sites across Somerset to dredge a five-mile stretch - with material removed used as fertiliser on local fields or for flood bank repairs.

Nearly 30,000 acres of land were left submerged during relentless winter storms and rain over the past three months, devastating homes, businesses and farms.

Flood water levels have since receded to allow roads to reopen, residents to return home and, crucially, dredging to begin.

Life is "a long way off" returning to normal for local residents, some of whom gathered at Burrowbridge to watch the work start.

Today James Winslade's farm is dry but for weeks it was inundated. Cut off by a mile of water up to ten feet deep. The cattle are now back after being evacuated but he and his family won't be able to move back into their farmhouse until Christmas.

Somerset County Council says it will be pressing government to do more than dredging.

"There are other things that we have published in our twenty year plan, further improvements downstream. We need to make a cut through to the King's Sedgemoor Drain so it's a big start but it's not the complete answer," says John Osman, leader of Somerset County Council.

Locals agree with that. 350 were forced from their homes. They keep repeating prevention is always better than cure.