SAMGM: Anger at environment chief in flood-hit Somerset

Aerial pictures show the scale of the area that is flooded - and the efforts to try and keep the water at bay

Environment Agency chairman Lord Smith has faced anger from residents and a local MP, as he visited the flood-hit Somerset Levels.

He insisted he would not resign during his first trip to the area, ahead of more expected rain later on Friday.

Residents have been furious at the Environment Agency, and MP Ian Liddell-Grainger called Lord Smith a "coward".

His visit comes as about 80 homes in the village of Moorland in Somerset have been evacuated.

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said a "handful" of other residents had chosen to stay, amid the latest bout of flooding in an area which has effectively been cut off for a number of weeks.

'Disaster zone'

Ahead of Lord Smith's visit, Conservative Mr Liddell-Grainger, who represents Bridgwater and West Somerset, said: "I will tell him what I bloody well think of him - he should go, he should walk.

"I'm livid. This little git has never even been on the telephone to me. When I find out where he is, I will give it to him.

"He has not told the local MPs, the local council or the local press where he is going to be. He's a coward."

Making his first visit since floods hit, Lord Smith said he had "no intention of resigning because I'm very proud of the work the Environment Agency and its staff have been doing right round the country in the face of the most extreme weather".

He said the residents he met had "made very clear" to him the distress they had experienced and difficulties they had faced - and how Somerset could be better protected in the future.

He added that £10m of extra government funding allocated to Somerset would enable the Environment Agency (EA) to dredge 8km (4.9 miles) of the rivers Tone and Parrett.