3 April 2009
Following requests from concerned residents to visit the River Brain through Braintree (off Notley Road near the old swimming pool site), Green Councillor James Abbott inspected the section last week and after 
discussions with fellow Green Councillor Phil Hughes, contacted both Braintree District Council and the Environment Agency (EA) about the state of the river. Land along the river is owned by the council at this location and the EA has overall responsibility for main rivers.
Large amounts of litter were found in the river, including objects such as a shopping trolley, a pram, chairs, traffic cones and tyres, along with a lot of plastic debris. In places this rubbish was caught up in trees that had fallen right across the river, or on trees actually growing out of the middle of the river. We are all for having more trees, but on the banks, not in the middle of the river. The combination of these blockages extended in places from bank to bank, potentially adding to flood risks, as well as looking dreadful.
Following the approaches to the EA, one of the blockages was removed (a large fallen tree), but much more remains to be done.
Cllr. James Abbott, Green Party Braintree District Councillor said
"The river in this area is in a shocking state and appears to have been like that for some time. I asked the Leader of the Council some months ago if enough was being done to pro-actively prevent flooding. From what we have seen it appears not.
There should be regular inspections of the rivers and regular maintenance to avoid such build-ups of blockages. This section of the river appears to have been badly neglected. The various authorities responsible for the environment frequently tell us how much they are doing to protect it - yet this area is embarassingly bad, in terms of flood risk, it being visually awful and of course the damage to wildlife caused by associated pollution.
This is a part of Braintree that has suffered flooding before and several parts of the river valley are identified in the Environment Agency Flood Plain, especially upstream of Notley Road. Given that known risk, why has the river been allowed to get in this state ?
We would also ask what is being done regarding flood prevention for the planned major redevelopment of this area for housing. Has a comprehensive plan been drawn up to ensure that development does not add to flood risks ?"
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