A WORCESTER hotel owner devastated by the November floods has criticised the Environment Agency for ignoring mud banks forming along the River Severn.

And he is concerned that rising silt levels on the riverbed will mean that the Severn will soon burst its banks again.

"All the work that has been done has been done on the walkway, nothing on the actual river," said Ian Johnston, landlord of the Severn View Hotel.

"Just cosmetic work has been done to tidy up the area.

"The mixture of sewage and water in the premises when the river flooded was all caused by the lack of maintenance on the river bank."

Mr Johnston only re-opened his 18th Century hotel on Friday, June 1 after being hit by last year's floods. In 1998, the hotel was shut for six weeks, following the October floods. He is one of many business owners who can now no longer obtain any insurance against flooding. And he is concerned that flooding will happen again, as he does not believe the problem is being tackled.

"The steel shutters installed at Bewdley will only accelerate the water further down the river."

"The flood warnings don't work either, as by the time I phone people, two thirds of them already have it up to the ceiling."

But a spokesman for the Environment Agency dismissed the idea of dredging as impractical.

"It would be very costly, only temporary and the silt would be replaced in a couple of weeks," he said.

"The amount of ground that we would have to remove to have any effect to flood levels would be really high."

Although he said there was nothing planned regarding flood prevention in Worcester specifically, there is a "Severn Strategy", a two-year project, which is currently being worked upon and will focus on flood prevention along the river.