Anti-flooding Petition

Have you been affected by flooding this year? Area residents have posted a petition on the internet, asking the Environment Agency turn their efforts and resources to dredging area rivers. Petitioners believe dredging would make it possible for the channels to hold more water and then conduct it more swiftly off the land. This would reduce damage from flooding and the expense of pumping the water away. The petition is reprinted below, but you must go to the link to add your name: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/45055
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Stop the Flooding on the Somerset Levels

The series of catastrophic floods in the Somerset Levels (and elsewhere in the country) is entirely avoidable. It stems, largely, from the Environment Agency's refusal to dredge the river system for the past 25 years. We want to see the rivers in the Somerset Levels and in other flooding hotspots properly dredged. 
Currently large sums of money are being wasted tryoing to pump water off the fields, many of which have been flooded for over 10 months. Please spend this money on preventative measures, ie dredging.