Questions remain for Environment Agency | Letter

Peter Foulston is not convinced by its chair's response to a Guardian report and says resources have shifted away from frontline pollution preventionEmma Howard Boyd's letter (30 January) fails to address the allegations you reported by serving Environment Agency officers that frontline pollution response services have been cut and staff gagged.I retired from the EA in 2014, having worked there since its inception in 1996, initially leading a team of dedicated officers in exactly this work. Over that 18 years, there was an inexorable shift in resources from frontline pollution and crime prevention work to higher-paid jobs managing policy and legislation. The old adage to "follow the money" saw the lion's share of the EA's resources spent on flood risk management. When I recently reported a pollution incident, I was shocked to discover that the system being used to record my information was the same one that I helped to develop 20 years ago. Continue reading...