Emma 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.
After the coalition government came to power in 2010, the EA’s statutory mission to promote sustainable development was quietly amended to promote sustainable economic growth.
Ms Howard Boyd’s letter reads as though it has been lifted from the introduction to any EA corporate report in the last 10 years and is an inadequate response to serious and substantive allegations.
Peter Foulston
Clayton West, West Yorkshire
• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.
