10/03/2014 BBC London News

shortly. They have an investigation into why some police forces in the

UK are Good evening.

It's been claimed that flooding along parts of the Thames this

winter was made worse by thd lack of dredging over recent years. BBC

London has spoken to former employees with decades of dredging

experience who claim the authorities were warned in the 1990s about the

risk of not removing sediment from the river. This special report from

Gareth Furby. It's a new housing developmdnt by

the Thames in Sunbury. But what is bothering some locals is not that

this is in their backyard btt the fact that a large piece of kit is

now missing from the yard. Dverybody was sad to see it go becausd we

believed it was a necessity. He s talking about this, one of the

dredgers that used to work tp and down the Thames. Now the Environment

Agency yard is changing. Thd big dredgers have gone and some people

believe that recent floods were made worse because the Thames wasn't

being regularly cleared of silt All throughout the office was sdven

inches of water. Johnny used to work as a dredging contract. His property

was flooded last month. He has no doubt that if the Thames was still

dredged, the flood would not have been as bad. The water levels would

have been lower, up to four or five inches. It would have saved a lot of

properties. How much materi`l was being removed before dredging was

wound down in the mid`1990s? BBC London has tracked down two

ex`employees. Kenny Beard w`s a supervisor. In his career, he thinks

he personally shifted 100,000 tonnes. He remembers well the day

his bosses said the river w`s self dredging. We just laughed! We said,

OK. All right. If that is what you reckon. It is going to cost

millions. Malcolm says some staff tested by the policy still went

ahead. Now, following the floods come he is angry with his former

employers. They have ignored people. They can protect a Kingfishdr and a

badger, but not people. Conservation overtook flood defence. This

afternoon the Environment Agency said flooding...

This is an issue which isn't going away, though.

Marc Ashdown is by the river in Teddington now. But, of course, the

Environment Agency needs to convince residents along the Thames they have

a long`term plan. That is rhght This is where the tidal Thales ends.

The Environment Agency has ` lot to do to convince people they `re doing

enough. They say that dredghng has a place in some rivers, just not here

in the Thames. They maintain they are spending lots of money to

protect homes. It is about what is right for the locations. We have

scheme down on the lower part of the Thames, the River Thames scheme

?256 million for flood risk reduction. That is the long`term

solution. Dredging is a verx short`term solution which, during

the low flows and summer droughts, sediment coming down will fhll those

holes very quickly and we whll be back to square one. It is not

cost`effective. That is why we want to work with partners to provide

that long`term solution. It is worth pointing out that we have h`d

exceptional rainfall, as much, apparently, in the past few weeks as

in the two big floods of recent years combined. The fences have come

a long way. `` defences. Thousands of homeowners who would be

affected by noise from a possible second runway at Gatwick ard being

promised ?1,000 a year towards their council tax. Airport bosses say it's

to compensate for the noise. But has it been welcomed by residents under

the flight? Here's Sarah Smhth. Gatwick has long been a noisy

neighbour and 30 year residdnt Ian White is not impressed at the

compensation on offer. You get used to living with it over the xears,

but with another one it is going to be bringing the aeroplane is close

to the built`up areas. One `` and the money won't help? Not at all.

What is it going to do. It will not stop the night. The money would go

to council tax payers in ardas affected. We are reacting to

questions put to us by local authorities and local peopld who

want to understand how we could minimise the impact of a second

runway here. We see the compensation as one part of that. Here,

campaigners have long campahgn against airport noise. They are

outside the compensation arda. Those against the second runway s`y it

would not have works, anywax. It is ?1000 for the complete change in

infrastructure, schools, hospitals, doctors surgeries, the traffic on

the roads, etc, that people will experience. Some, though, are happy

with the offer. Nobody is going to say no to that, so, yeah, if it was

there to be taken off the b`ck of a second runway, then why not? Many

businesses believe expansion is crucial and Gatwick is despdrate for

the airports commission to choose a new runway. If it does, then new

runway would open about ten years later. `` the new runway.

Just before the weather, a puick reminder that Late Kick Off has a

round`up of Football League action at11:20. I'll say goodnight and hand

you over to Wendy. Good evening. We have a beattiful

and the weekend. This is how it looked. Through this week it will be

sometimes as sunny and also dry as high pressure stays with us. At the

moment we have got a fair alount of cloud cover. It is not going to turn

to chilly through the night. We will have those grey skies first thing

tomorrow morning, and also ` north`easterly breeze. That will

make it feel a bit cooler, H should think. Further south`east, the more

likely you are to hold on through the day. Parts of Buckinghalshire

and Essex are likely to get some brightness. Temperatures at around

11 or 12 degrees. This is the outlook.

11 or 12 degrees. This is the outlook. If you are heading

somewhere else in the UK, you need the forecast. Hello. The local

weather detail you have just heard fit into an overall pattern which is

now equivocal in different from the one that gave us our wettest winter

on record. We have spent the day watching high

pressure pushing across the UK. It is settling our weather down like

any area of high pressure. It is here for a while. It is here for

this week. The Jetstream has moved north and the wet and whether -

whinny systems have moved towards Iceland.