Environment Agency director to retire as regional office dissolves
Richard Cresswell, the Regional Director for the South West Region of the Environment Agency is expected to retire next week alongside a significant re-structuring of the agency.
Mr Cresswell, who took up the post in July 2000, was recently instrumental in overseeing the Agency’s response to the winter flooding crisis which devastated much of the South West region earlier this year.
The new structure will take effect from April 1 and will see the regional offices of the EA dissolve in place of a ‘two-tier’ system of ‘national’ and ‘area’ offices.
The news follows reports last month that over 1000 EA staff have applied for voluntary redundancy but further compulsory job losses are also expected to take place to meet the planned 1,700 job cuts.
Exeter MP, Ben Bradshaw said he was anxious over the impact the re-structure could have to the UK’s flood defences, he said: "I'm extremely concerned by the jobs cuts at the Environment Agency and the hollowing out of its regional presence.
“EA staff have done a fantastic job during this and last winters' terrible floods, working round the clock to provide help and improve flood defences. But staff tell me that because of job cuts they don't have enough people to maintain existing defences, let alone provide new ones.
“David Cameron promised at the height of this winter's floods there would be a moratorium on EA jobs cuts. That is now revealed as an another empty promise.
“We've learned that cuts to flood defences were a terrible false economy. These further cuts to the EA will be too."
The news follows last week’s Budget announcement, in which the Chancellor George Osborne granted the Agency a further £140m, in addition to the £130m announced in early February.
However, trade union GMB have said the additional funds are “little more than the money needed just to put right the damage to the country’s vital flood defences” and warned that the agency will still be face the 1,700 job cuts.
In a statement released last week GMB called for a reversal on planned job cuts.
The statement reads: “The Prime Minister should learn from this winter of flooding and damage, reverse the decision to cut the EA’s budget by 10% and commission an Independent Review to establish the levels of capital and revenue funding necessary to provide and maintain the country’s flood and coastal defences and other Environment Agency functions.”
Mr Cresswell is retiring on March 31 after 14 years as the South West regional director based at Manley House in Exeter.
He is also Trustee of Sustainability South West, currently Chair of Future Foundations, promoting sustainable construction in the South West, Chair of the SW Climate Change Partnership and is a keen supporter of Exeter Chiefs Rugby Club.
