Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress the Environment Agency has made in its plan to de-main eleven watercourses in Norfolk, announced in 2017.

Overall across the country, the de-maining pilot project resulted in the Environment Agency (EA):

• redesignating 16 stretches or 63.8 km of main river to ordinary watercourse;
• transferring 28 assets and 178 acres of land to Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs).

The statutory guidance to the EA for the designation of main rivers requires that the EA should consider relevant benefits or costs for the local community and representations from the local community and others in response to consultation.

Of the 11 watercourses in Norfolk, eight were withdrawn at an early stage due to concerns raised in May 2018 at the Environment, Development, and Transport committee of Norfolk County Council about the potential increases to special levy for District Councils.

In November 2018, the EA formally consulted on the proposal to de-main three watercourses at Tunstall Dyke, Waxham New Cut and the River Tud, which are wholly within IDB areas.

The consultation found that overall consultees did not support the proposal to de-main the River Tud due to concerns over the environmental management. Consultees were either neutral or in support of proposals to de-main the Waxham New Cut and Tunstall Dyke. The EA withdrew the River Tud from the pilot in January 2019.

In May 2019, the EA decided to pause the Norfolk pilot and withdrew the proposals for the remaining two watercourses due to an ongoing investigation into waste management irregularities, the outcome of which may be relevant to who should manage the de-mained watercourses. The EA will not comment further on this while the investigation is ongoing, nor will the de-maining pilot proceed until the investigation has been concluded.

The EA may decide at some point in the future to revisit these proposals. Until then, these two watercourses will continue to be Main River and the Environment Agency will retain its permissive powers to maintain them.