:00:00. > 3:59:59shortly. They have an investigation into why some police forces in the
:00:00. > :00:16.UK are Good evening.
:00:17. > :00:20.It's been claimed that flooding along parts of the Thames this
:00:21. > :00:27.winter was made worse by thd lack of dredging over recent years. BBC
:00:28. > :00:29.London has spoken to former employees with decades of dredging
:00:30. > :00:33.experience who claim the authorities were warned in the 1990s about the
:00:34. > :00:40.risk of not removing sediment from the river. This special report from
:00:41. > :00:44.Gareth Furby. It's a new housing developmdnt by
:00:45. > :00:49.the Thames in Sunbury. But what is bothering some locals is not that
:00:50. > :00:55.this is in their backyard btt the fact that a large piece of kit is
:00:56. > :01:01.now missing from the yard. Dverybody was sad to see it go becausd we
:01:02. > :01:04.believed it was a necessity. He s talking about this, one of the
:01:05. > :01:09.dredgers that used to work tp and down the Thames. Now the Environment
:01:10. > :01:15.Agency yard is changing. Thd big dredgers have gone and some people
:01:16. > :01:21.believe that recent floods were made worse because the Thames wasn't
:01:22. > :01:26.being regularly cleared of silt All throughout the office was sdven
:01:27. > :01:31.inches of water. Johnny used to work as a dredging contract. His property
:01:32. > :01:35.was flooded last month. He has no doubt that if the Thames was still
:01:36. > :01:40.dredged, the flood would not have been as bad. The water levels would
:01:41. > :01:46.have been lower, up to four or five inches. It would have saved a lot of
:01:47. > :01:52.properties. How much materi`l was being removed before dredging was
:01:53. > :02:00.wound down in the mid`1990s? BBC London has tracked down two
:02:01. > :02:06.ex`employees. Kenny Beard w`s a supervisor. In his career, he thinks
:02:07. > :02:10.he personally shifted 100,000 tonnes. He remembers well the day
:02:11. > :02:20.his bosses said the river w`s self dredging. We just laughed! We said,
:02:21. > :02:32.OK. All right. If that is what you reckon. It is going to cost
:02:33. > :02:37.millions. Malcolm says some staff tested by the policy still went
:02:38. > :02:42.ahead. Now, following the floods come he is angry with his former
:02:43. > :02:50.employers. They have ignored people. They can protect a Kingfishdr and a
:02:51. > :02:53.badger, but not people. Conservation overtook flood defence. This
:02:54. > :03:05.afternoon the Environment Agency said flooding...
:03:06. > :03:09.This is an issue which isn't going away, though.
:03:10. > :03:13.Marc Ashdown is by the river in Teddington now. But, of course, the
:03:14. > :03:24.Environment Agency needs to convince residents along the Thames they have
:03:25. > :03:28.a long`term plan. That is rhght This is where the tidal Thales ends.
:03:29. > :03:33.The Environment Agency has ` lot to do to convince people they `re doing
:03:34. > :03:36.enough. They say that dredghng has a place in some rivers, just not here
:03:37. > :03:41.in the Thames. They maintain they are spending lots of money to
:03:42. > :03:46.protect homes. It is about what is right for the locations. We have
:03:47. > :03:52.scheme down on the lower part of the Thames, the River Thames scheme
:03:53. > :03:57.?256 million for flood risk reduction. That is the long`term
:03:58. > :04:02.solution. Dredging is a verx short`term solution which, during
:04:03. > :04:06.the low flows and summer droughts, sediment coming down will fhll those
:04:07. > :04:10.holes very quickly and we whll be back to square one. It is not
:04:11. > :04:16.cost`effective. That is why we want to work with partners to provide
:04:17. > :04:19.that long`term solution. It is worth pointing out that we have h`d
:04:20. > :04:24.exceptional rainfall, as much, apparently, in the past few weeks as
:04:25. > :04:36.in the two big floods of recent years combined. The fences have come
:04:37. > :04:39.a long way. `` defences. Thousands of homeowners who would be
:04:40. > :04:42.affected by noise from a possible second runway at Gatwick ard being
:04:43. > :04:47.promised ?1,000 a year towards their council tax. Airport bosses say it's
:04:48. > :04:52.to compensate for the noise. But has it been welcomed by residents under
:04:53. > :04:57.the flight? Here's Sarah Smhth. Gatwick has long been a noisy
:04:58. > :05:02.neighbour and 30 year residdnt Ian White is not impressed at the
:05:03. > :05:06.compensation on offer. You get used to living with it over the xears,
:05:07. > :05:12.but with another one it is going to be bringing the aeroplane is close
:05:13. > :05:19.to the built`up areas. One `` and the money won't help? Not at all.
:05:20. > :05:29.What is it going to do. It will not stop the night. The money would go
:05:30. > :05:34.to council tax payers in ardas affected. We are reacting to
:05:35. > :05:37.questions put to us by local authorities and local peopld who
:05:38. > :05:42.want to understand how we could minimise the impact of a second
:05:43. > :05:47.runway here. We see the compensation as one part of that. Here,
:05:48. > :05:52.campaigners have long campahgn against airport noise. They are
:05:53. > :05:58.outside the compensation arda. Those against the second runway s`y it
:05:59. > :06:02.would not have works, anywax. It is ?1000 for the complete change in
:06:03. > :06:05.infrastructure, schools, hospitals, doctors surgeries, the traffic on
:06:06. > :06:12.the roads, etc, that people will experience. Some, though, are happy
:06:13. > :06:18.with the offer. Nobody is going to say no to that, so, yeah, if it was
:06:19. > :06:25.there to be taken off the b`ck of a second runway, then why not? Many
:06:26. > :06:32.businesses believe expansion is crucial and Gatwick is despdrate for
:06:33. > :06:36.the airports commission to choose a new runway. If it does, then new
:06:37. > :06:40.runway would open about ten years later. `` the new runway.
:06:41. > :06:43.Just before the weather, a puick reminder that Late Kick Off has a
:06:44. > :06:51.round`up of Football League action at11:20. I'll say goodnight and hand
:06:52. > :06:55.you over to Wendy. Good evening. We have a beattiful
:06:56. > :07:00.and the weekend. This is how it looked. Through this week it will be
:07:01. > :07:04.sometimes as sunny and also dry as high pressure stays with us. At the
:07:05. > :07:11.moment we have got a fair alount of cloud cover. It is not going to turn
:07:12. > :07:15.to chilly through the night. We will have those grey skies first thing
:07:16. > :07:18.tomorrow morning, and also ` north`easterly breeze. That will
:07:19. > :07:22.make it feel a bit cooler, H should think. Further south`east, the more
:07:23. > :07:27.likely you are to hold on through the day. Parts of Buckinghalshire
:07:28. > :07:32.and Essex are likely to get some brightness. Temperatures at around
:07:33. > :07:32.11 or 12 degrees. This is the outlook.
:07:33. > :07:35.11 or 12 degrees. This is the outlook. If you are heading
:07:36. > :07:41.somewhere else in the UK, you need the forecast. Hello. The local
:07:42. > :07:45.weather detail you have just heard fit into an overall pattern which is
:07:46. > :07:47.now equivocal in different from the one that gave us our wettest winter
:07:48. > :07:52.on record. We have spent the day watching high
:07:53. > :07:56.pressure pushing across the UK. It is settling our weather down like
:07:57. > :08:00.any area of high pressure. It is here for a while. It is here for
:08:01. > :08:04.this week. The Jetstream has moved north and the wet and whether -
:08:05. > :08:06.whinny systems have moved towards Iceland.