No plans to dredge the Aldingbourne Rife, Environment Agency tells councillor

Cllr Keir Greenway (Con), who represents Bersted on West Sussex County Council said he arranged the meeting after several residents wrote to him to ask about the maintenance of the rife, which runs through Bersted down to the sea, including the possibility of dredging.

Dredging was once a regular practice on the rife, but stopped more than twenty years ago. Calls for its reintroduction have continued ever since and came up again after severe rainfall last month led to flood warnings throughout Bersted.

In an update posted to Facebook, Cllr Greenway confirmed there are no plans to dredge the rife: “Due to the costs being too high for the small benefit that would be gained. On top of this, there would be negative impacts to the wildlife in the rife.”

He made clear that the Environment Agency are taking action to maintain the rife, writing: “The Environment Agency is, as I write this, continuing vegetation clearing on the Rife, which will continue upstream. Unfortunately, due to the drought in the summer the levels were too low to get on the Rife to do the work.”

Although floods caused a number of issues around Shripney Road last month, Cllr Greenway said the Environment Agency are keen to assure residents that ‘most of the water was being stored in the right places for the most part’.

This includes the water in the Tesco supermarket and the surrounding floodplains. He was told the “pumps at Felpham are constantly running to reduce flood risk,” and the Tesco car park on Shripney Road “is a recognised flood storage area and is designed to flood at certain levels.”

The update comes after Cllr Greenway told the Bognor Regis Observer he had contacted the Environment Agency regarding flooding last month, after hearing from a number of residents who expressed concern about water levels in the area.

He said it was a ‘delicate issue at the end of the day,’ and described ‘striking a balance’ between maintaining water levels without damaging the river bed.

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Residents suggest dredging the Aldingbourne Rife as floods batter Bognor Regis