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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when her department will confirm plans for the Environment Agency to hold a separate, stand alone bridges construction and maintenance budget to run alongside budgets for Locks & Weirs.

Environment Agency owned bridges along the non-tidal Thames are part of the overall Navigation infrastructure.

Construction and maintenance allocations for the Environment Agency’s Navigation assets has already been set for the current Spending Review period. This includes Locks, Weirs, Bridges and their associated assets. The Environment Agency is also developing a partnership funding mechanism to accelerate specific bridge refurbishment projects. This will increase the overall amount of bridge construction and maintenance that the Environment Agency can deliver and help towards creating a sustainable Navigation service.