West Country Environment Agency

A man has been fined £8,800 for operating two illegal waste sites in Gloucestershire.

Sam Phelps, who ran ‘XP Wood Recycling’, pleaded guilty to two charges of deliberately operating illegal waste sites, which were a risk to the environment and a nuisance to the local community. Mr. Phelps was fined £400 for each offence and ordered to pay costs of £8,000 at Cheltenham Magistrates court yesterday (7 March 2016).

While on a site visit, an Environment Agency officer found a pile of shredded waste wood estimated to be at least four times the authorised amount. The nearby Severn Estuary, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, was at risk of pollution from the water run-off from this site.

Campaigners have won their battle to protect hundreds of acres of farmland near Exeter from being flooded regularly.

The Environment Agency has dropped a multi million pound project to create a tidal wetland area for birds in the Clyst Valley.

Little yellow fish have been painted next to many of the drains in Teignmouth. The Environment Agency has sprayed them as part of a campaign to prevent people pouring waste down them, particularly fat.

They're storm water drains that discharge straight into the sea, so any other waste will pollute the local waters.

A farmer from Somerset says contractors used by the Environment Agency have caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to his land - and he hasn't received any compensation.

James Hall's yard at Northmoor was used to store vehicles and building equipment during the flooding on the Levels. Now he's been told that the Environment Agency plans to use his land again.

A farmer from Somerset says he's been insulted by the Environment Agency after they threatened to bring cranes onto his land without his permission.

James Hall's yard at Northmoor was used by contractors during the flooding on the Somerset Levels causing around £8,500 worth of damage.

Now the Agency need to use the space again to remove pumps from a nearby river. But James says he can't afford any more disruption.

The Environment Agency says around a thousand homes on the edge of Bridgwater are now at risk as the flooding crisis in Somerset deepens. Around 150 homes in villages on the Somerset Levels are currently affected.

The Agency says it's building an earth bank at Northmoor about a mile from Bridgwater as part of efforts to protect the town.

There has been strong reaction to an article today by the chairman of the Environment Agency, Lord Smith, saying that difficult decisions about spending on flood defences will mean choosing between "front rooms or farmland".

Our Political Correspondent Bob Constantine says this sort of comment is not likely to go down well with people under water on the Somerset Levels. A question he posed to Pete Fox, an Environment Agency spokesman