A SOMERSET MP is demanding explanations from the Environment Agency after reports it has become ‘obsessed’ with health and safety.

A whistleblower claims agency staff have been banned from carrying out basic tasks such as clearing waterways because of overzealous rules.

Ian Liddell-Grainger, MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset, says he intends to find out whether the allegations are true.

“It is shocking to learn that basic Environment Agency work is being delayed because some people have gone completely over the top on matters of health and safety,” he said.

“In an area like Somerset the daily lives of thousands of people depend on waterways being routinely cleaned and maintained - and there are still many painful memories of what happened eight years ago when the Environment Agency decided it was no longer necessary to do so."

The whistleblower said this has extended to the work of removing debris and blockages from rivers, often delayed for months while risk assessments are carried out.

Bridgwater Mercury:

Officials are also said to be imposing strict controls on using hand tools such as screwdrivers until training has been ‘developed and assessed’.

“If these allegations are true it is by no means the first time that an organisation has taken health and safety precautions to a ridiculous extreme.

“I am taking steps to ascertain if these claims are well-founded and if they are I shall be making it very clear to the Environment Agency that it needs to adopt a more proportionate attitude.

“I fully appreciate that its staff need to be protected while they are at work but precautions must not be allowed to create a wider risk to the general public.”