IT is time for the Environment Agency to be disbanded as it has, time and time again, failed this country and our communities miserably.

We all thought that it would have learned many lessons following 2000 and 2004 but this agency has been consistent in making terrible decisions including recently opening the River Foss flood defences in York which resulted in floods on a massive scale.

The Environment Agency had more than enough time to prepare for these floods given the forecasts but once again let the country down from Carlisle to Corbridge, Hebden Bridge, Leeds, York, Selby and the Yorkshire Dales – failed decisions that are going to have a massive cost.

It is now time to bring back the river authorities to work with the moorland management associations and local councils to prevent floods of such scale.

And dredge rivers NOW – this should not be in question, it should be as a matter of course.

The Government is talking about a so-called “Northern Powerhouse” but which business in their right mind is going to invest in the North when all our major cities are surrounded by our rivers?

It is time to stop foreign aid for three years and invest in this country’s infrastructure.

Andy Brook, Middleham