Environment Agency to call in The Samaritans....?

The Prime Minister - no doubt with Avoncliff in mind has told civil servants to engage The Samaritans for civil servants forced to deal with angry and frustrated members of the public - we admit to both emotions when the EA is mentioned :-)

One really does have to wonder what Mr. Cameron is thinking - or even - if he actually engages in that activity at all? 

According to The Daily Telegraph article (no doubt sanctioned by No. 10) - £600 each for half a day’s training, 20 civil servants at a time will be taught to empathise with callers and make them feel valued."

We can't wait to experience the results of this empathy training - since at the moment The Environment Agency actually won't talk to us...  which it has to be said is a quite bizarre experience.  We never heard of such a thing before. Maybe the refusal to talk is practice for being gagged?

On a more serious note - the stress and anguish inflicted upon "customers"  / "stakeholders"  or simply innocent members of the public by the Environment Agency's delinquent officials isn't trivial and real harm has been done - patting people on the shoulder and fluffing up their self regard is not the answer - the answer is to ensure that the possibility of getting it wrong is reduced by removing those officials who perpetrate clear wrongdoing and damaging  travesties in the discharge of their duties. 

There's quite a lot of debate going on at the moment about civil servants  

I don't know about empathy training above ... I do know about sympathy for victims and it's clear that delinquent civil servants have much to be brought to task over - like THIS .

EDIT: 
£14m bill for gagging axed public officials 
Given what we've seen we're wondering if anybody's taken "early retirement" or "extended gardening leave" at The Environment Agency...  looking to see if there's any EA references popping up.