boatone
Well-known member
It is fairly obvious to those of us that participate in meetings with the EA regarding river management, that we are unlikely to achieve much progress with the major funding issue by attacking the guys at the coalface (who I believe, in the main, are trying to do a half decent job with inadequate resources) and that another route to those in power - i.e. further up the departmental/governmental hierarchy - needs to be pursued.
I realised this some considerable time ago and in late November 2011, following a meeting with my local MP (not a riparian constituency) I wrote to him formally. True to his word he pursued the matter on my behalf and the letter reached Richard Benyon MP, at that time the minister within Defra responsible for navigation. In early February, via my MP, I received a response from the minister noting my concerns but, basically informing me that the EA were doing everything that could be expected of them etc.
It transpired that my letter, having reached the minister, was then forwarded through the "system" until it landed back at Reading with the very people I had decided were not able to significantly influence the matter of funding. They had then spent some time preparing a briefing note which was returned "through the system" to the minister who then used it as a basis for his reply to my MP and myself.
You might think that this was a complete and utter waste of time - I couldn't possibly comment!
I have decided to make the correspondence available, if for no other reason than to let you all know that I have been actively trying to raise the issue at higher level, albeit with little success at this time. I am tempted to send the correspondence to Big Dave and point out that his idea of the "Big Society" is pretty much doomed to failure if this is the way government departments and civil servants treat concerned citizens who are keen to engage in constructive dialogue.
The correspondence is available as a pdf - I have only redacted ( I love that word !) my private address, but not my identity, for obvious reasons:
http://www.tmba.org.uk/downloads/ar-mp-ealettersrethames2.pdf
I realised this some considerable time ago and in late November 2011, following a meeting with my local MP (not a riparian constituency) I wrote to him formally. True to his word he pursued the matter on my behalf and the letter reached Richard Benyon MP, at that time the minister within Defra responsible for navigation. In early February, via my MP, I received a response from the minister noting my concerns but, basically informing me that the EA were doing everything that could be expected of them etc.
It transpired that my letter, having reached the minister, was then forwarded through the "system" until it landed back at Reading with the very people I had decided were not able to significantly influence the matter of funding. They had then spent some time preparing a briefing note which was returned "through the system" to the minister who then used it as a basis for his reply to my MP and myself.
You might think that this was a complete and utter waste of time - I couldn't possibly comment!
I have decided to make the correspondence available, if for no other reason than to let you all know that I have been actively trying to raise the issue at higher level, albeit with little success at this time. I am tempted to send the correspondence to Big Dave and point out that his idea of the "Big Society" is pretty much doomed to failure if this is the way government departments and civil servants treat concerned citizens who are keen to engage in constructive dialogue.
The correspondence is available as a pdf - I have only redacted ( I love that word !) my private address, but not my identity, for obvious reasons:
http://www.tmba.org.uk/downloads/ar-mp-ealettersrethames2.pdf
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