Our EDA Environmental Editor reports that a couple of months ago the Environment Agency (EA) put the finishing touches to a £85K flood alleviation scheme by the entrance to Budleigh Salterton cricket field in Granary lane. This is not to protect the cricket field but the handful of houses that have been built in recent years in an area that habitually floods.

It is very welcome news to the residents who have been flooded out four times in in the last couple of years. They had feared they were too few in number to reach the top of EA’s priority list, especially since the coalition cut real expenditure on flood defences. Their urgent needs for protection were also in danger of being deferred as part of longer term studies in how to restore fully functioning tidal flow to the lower reaches of Otter Estuary.

So this is good news, and as an added bonus, the scheme fits unobtrusively into the landscape. Congratulations all round!

However, this £85K expenditure (it’s your money and mine) was entirely avoidable and is the consequence of irresponsible historic planning decisions. Could EDDC make the same mistake again?