WORK to dredge the Rivers Parrett and Tone near Bridgwater has been completed with environment secretary Liz Truss overseeing the results during a visit last week.

About 130,000 cubic metres of silt was removed from a fivemile stretch along the two rivers during the seven-month dredge.

The work will help reduce the likelihood and duration of flooding to properties on Curry Moor and North Moor, on the A361 and the West Coast mainline.

But local MP Ian Liddell- Grainger attacked the visit as ‘grossly insensitive’ as Ms Truss did not visit some of the communities hit hardest during flooding earlier in the year.

The Conservative member for Bridgwater and West Somerset said it was ‘beyond belief’ it was not planned for her to visit Moorland and Fordgate where some families have still not been able to move back into homes wrecked by the worst floods in living memory.

Ms Truss visited the Willows and Wetlands centre as contractors prepare to pack up and leave after dredging the two rivers.

But Mr Liddell-Grainger insists it was the Environment Agency’s decision 20 years ago to halt routine dredging – previously carried on for centuries – which locals are blaming for the severity and duration of the floods.

He said: “I cannot think of a more insensitive course of action than for the Secretary of State to come down to Somerset for a mutual backslapping celebration with the Environment Agency when I believe it was the Environment Agency which was largely responsible for the magnitude of this disaster in the first place.

“The indisputable fact is that the agency was more concerned about spending £30 million creating a pointless nature reserve at Steart, at the mouth of the Parrett, than doing the work which several hundred years of experience had taught everyone was necessary to stop homes on the Levels being inundated.”

Craig Woolhouse, deputy director of Flood Incident Management, said: “Our staff and our contractors Land and Water Services have worked extremely hard to complete this project on time.

“I’d also particularly like to thank local people for their patience over the last few months.

“Together we’ve completed one of the first actions for the 20-year Somerset Flood Action Plan, co-ordinated by Somerset County Council. We are now working closely with the Somerset Drainage Boards Consortium and Land and Water Services to share lessons learnt from this project.

“This information will help shape how this stretch of river is monitored and maintained in future.

“In addition to the dredging project, flood-damaged defences across Somerset have been repaired, or are nearing completion, ahead of winter.

“Completed work includes bank repairs to the River Parrett at Langport and Cocklemoor.

“Work is also under way at Dunball, to allow us to bring in additional pumps should they be needed, and other sites such as Aller Drove, Saltmoor Pumping Station and Aller Spillway, which are all nearing completion.”

Environment secretary Ms Truss said: “We absolutely recognise the importance of tackling flooding, which is why we are investing £3.2 billion on flood management and defences. This is more than ever before and half a billion more than in the last Parliament.

“The Environment Agency has shown real determination and resilience in completing the dredging on time and on budget and we’ll now be working closely with the local councils to ensure Somerset is better protected in the future.”