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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding his Department has provided for the maintenance of the River Rom in each of the last three years.

The Environment Agency’s records relating to maintenance funding on main rivers are set out per financial year, which runs from 1 April – 31 March. The Environment Agency has spent the following on maintenance for the River Rom and Black’s Brook (which feeds into the Rom) in the past 3 years (to the nearest whole figure):

2021 - 2022: £93,350

2022 - 2023: £74,430

2023 - 2024: £52,550 (expected cost as financial year not yet complete).

This includes a variety of works including vegetation management, operational checks on flood defence assets, treatment of invasive non-native species, bridge inspections, and inspection and maintenance of public safety measures.

These figures will not include any expenditure on maintenance carried out as part of the Environment Agency’s incident response activities as the financial data for this is not held for each river.