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I was astonished to read your report about the Environment Agency's plans to sell off, or rent out, lock-keeper's homes in Oxfordshire (Abingdon Herald, April 24, 2008).

Surely lock-keepers work seven days a week in the summer, to operate the locks, and are on 24-hours-a-day standby throughout the year, to regulate the weirs and deal with emergencies, so it must be vital that they live close to their work.

The idea that lock-keepers and their families should be thrown out of their homes so that the houses can be rented out to others, can only mean that their pay is so low that they would be unable to afford the rents that the Environment Agency wishes to charge.

And where will these displaced families find local affordable housing? I imagine they will have to turn to local authorities for assistance, thus shifting costs from the Environment Agency to the local authorities - another example of central Government spend transferred to council taxpayers.

Nigel D West Northcourt Lane Abingdon

8:21am Thursday 1st May 2008

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