Residents of a small Somerset village have asked that a "gravel shoal" be removed from a key river to protect the local pub and nearby homes from flooding.
The Exmoor White Horse Inn has been a fixture of the village of Exford since the 16th century, sited on the banks of the River Exe in the heart of the Exmoor National Park.
Jeremy Hickman, who served on Exford Parish Council, asked the Environment Agency (EA) whether work could be done to improve the river using a share of £50m provided by Defra in the wake of the catastrophic floods which hit Somerset in January.
The EA has said that such a scheme would not qualify for this support since the river's outflow is over the border in Devon.
Mr Hickman raised the issue when the Somerset Rivers Authority board met in Taunton on Friday morning (September 11).
He said: "We're up in the far west of Somerset, and everything I hear today [with regards to the £50m] covers the area east of the Brendon Hills.
"We have a significant problem at Exford Bridge. We've got a gravel shoal that's built up there, and we keep asking the EA to do something about it.
"Somerset Council clear the vegetation in there every year - they've just cleared it this year at a cost of £5,000. They want the gravel shoal removed.
"The EA keeps saying: 'this shoal will move', but in the last ten years nothing has moved barring 20,000 to 30,000 small stones. Alder and withy trees have now taken root in there - it's just one solid mass now.
"There are 45 residents in the lower part of the village who are absolutely worried to death that we are going to get flooded out one day.
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"The EA won't let us doing anything about; they won't let us go into the river and insists it's all got to be done from the banks."
Exford Bridge carries the B3224 Chapel Street across the river, which connects the two sides of the village and serves as one of the main roads for communities south of Dunkery Beacon.
Mr Hickman said Somerset Council's bridges team were "110 per cent" behind the shoal being removed, and that accessing from the other side would be impossible without putting heavy machinery in the pub's garden.
He added: "I'm here to ask for help before I get flooded out at 2am.
"I don't want to be living in a hotel for nine months, and I feel deeply sorry for the people living on the Moors who have had to do that.
"We are a proactive bunch up on Exmoor - we can solve a lot of our own problems ourselves.
"We've had branches come down, and people have gone out at midnight, known who to phone, someone has come out with a tractor and a timber trailer and we've pulled trees out of the river.
"We've done the EA's job for them. If we call them at 11pm, we go through to some call centre and by then it's too late."
"Can we have some help please? There's 272 parishes in Somerset, that's about £18,000 a parish - and it's not going to cost £18,000 to do this."
Ian Withers, the EA's director for the Wessex area (which comprises Bristol, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire), said he was sympathetic to Mr Hickman's situation but added the matter would have be handled by the Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly branch.
Since the River Exe's estuary is in Devon, any Exford scheme would not be eligible for any share of the £50m funding, which must be committed and spent in its entirety by the autumn of 2028.
Mr Withers explained: "Our operational areas are based on river catchments, and unfortunately for the purposes of today, the Exe goes into my neighbouring ideas.
"I will commit to taking this away and getting some answers for you.
"Unless it falls within the Somerset jurisdiction, in terms of the £50m, I can't give you anything. I absolutely take your passion and concern on board."
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