I READ the responses to Liz Truss’s speech on flood defences ( Courant Farming , January 15).

Your environmentalist summed up his position that farmers could now maintain their ditches “without any interference from the Environment Agency”!

For fields to store water during heavy rainfall they have to be able to soak up water before the rain falls (i.e. drained, dry).

If they are already waterlogged, because of poor drainage, they are next to useless and the water runs straight off under gravity. Drainage management is essential.

It is scandalous that the Government has hidden from view the ruling that all material dredged from ditches and rivers has to be treated as toxic waste and treated accordingly.

If this is the case, then the alluvial flood plains that contain some of the best agricultural land in the country should be treated accordingly and all produce burned as unfit for human consumption.

The latter point is ridiculous, but so is the first that has effectively stopped all dredging.

We can conclude that the environmentalists and the angling trust are only interested in their own narrow aims and don’t give two hoots about the flooding of residential properties.

Unmaintained flood defences will be increasingly overwhelmed when the river bed is allowed to fill up.

DEREK SMITH,

High Mickley