Petition · past parliament

Reinstate river dredging to help reduce the effects of excessive rain fall.

Rejected 15 signatures

What the petition asks

Over the last 10 years we have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of flooding, both coastal and inland from excessive precipitation. This is in direct corrolation with Global warning, but also a consequence of reducing the volume of the UK's riverways by ceasing all but targetted dredging.
Simple hydrological theory states that if a watercourse's volume is reduced by inserting a mass then its permissable volume of said channel is reduced by the same. Ceasing to dredge the waterways as they aren't required for commercial navigation has resulted in silting up of our rivers. Eg; The Ouse in York, once a 6m deep river, now is 3m deep at its deepest - the rest is Silt.
Dredging is time consuming & expensive but very necessary to reduce the impact of increasingly excessive rainfall.

Why it was rejected

There was already a petition about this issue. Duplicates are rejected so signatures collect in one place.

Timeline

13 Dec 2015 Petition opened for signatures
14 Dec 2015 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 15
Status Rejected
Rejected 14 Dec 2015

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.