Member of Parliament for Beverley and Holderness, Graham Stuart has commended the work of the South Holderness Consortium of Drainage Boards for the work they have done to dredge Stone Creek and Hedon Haven.
Graham said, “ This dredging is the product of a huge amount of work from many different organisations and the Consortium of Drainage Boards should be congratulated for their energy and expertise to bring this to fruition.
“The project has cost in excess of £100,000 and has been funded by money from East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Yorkshire Water Community Fund, Hedon Town Council, The Internal Drainage Boards, The Environment Agency and The Crown Estate.
“The group initially struggled to obtain the licenses needed to undertake this work and I invited them to London to meet with Defra Minister, Richard Benyon to highlight to him the problems they were having. I am delighted that these issues have been resolved and that the work has been completed.”
Chairman of The South Holderness Drainage Board, John Maston said, “ We are very grateful to Graham for giving me the opportunity to meet The Environment Minister, Richard Benyon, about the problems we were having with the licences. Things moved along pretty swiftly after that meeting. It is good to have a proactive MP who gets things done.”
Graham added, “ This dredging work has been subjected to an extraordinary amount of licensing and sampling work that has added to the cost of the project. I have written to the relevant authorities and to Defra to examine how the red-tape can be reduced in the future.”
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Press Release, June 11, 2013