THE Environment Agency (EA) has been urged to reverse planned cuts to maintenance work for rivers in West Somerset.

Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) said the agency should ‘reinstate full maintenance’ of the county’s rivers.

The move comes a week after Watchet Town Council decided to lead local opposition to the cuts and to write to every affected parish council asking it to join the campaign.

The EA said the Government had given only 60 per cent of the funding it requested for maintenance of Somerset waterways and it would therefore stop maintaining some rivers, including the Washford Stream and the River Avill.

But the SRA said the decision would have ‘catastrophic consequences’.

SRA chairman Mike Stanton said: “I am deeply concerned about the increased flood risks that will be caused by the withdrawal of maintenance.

“I have spoken to many people about this and heard many frank opinions.

“People have different views about how we came to be in the situation we are now in.

“But, I have found there is one common thread, which is that everybody recognises the importance of the work that was being done, everybody wants to preserve what made it valuable, and everybody wants to help achieve what is best for Somerset.”

Mr Stanton said said earlier in the year the SRA agreed to fund some of the EA’s main river maintenance because it was willing to help, ‘but we cannot do everything’.

He said: “All of us in Somerset now need to press the case for Somerset and find fair, long-lasting ways of getting work done that needs to be done.”

Concerns about the EA cuts were shared by MP Sir Ashley Fox, whose Bridgwater constituency includes chunks of West Somerset.

Sir Ashley said: “It undermines the resilience of our rural communities, farmland, and sensitive environmental sites.”