SRA-Annual-Report-2023-24

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Somerset
Rivers Authority

SRA Annual
Report
Strategy
2024 - 2034
2023
We reduce the risks and impacts of
flooding across Somerset

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Somerset Rivers Authority
(SRA) is a unique partnership
Our partners work together
to achieve more for Somerset

Our core purpose is to reduce
the risks and impacts of
flooding

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Foreword by
SRA Chair Cllr Mike Stanton
I’m pleased to introduce the ninth annual report of Somerset Rivers
Authority (SRA). Here you will find details of dozens of SRA-funded
activities across Somerset between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, all
done to reduce the risks and impacts of flooding. The SRA was launched
in January 2015 following the devastating flooding that hit Somerset
over the winter of 2013-14 and the production of a 20 Year Flood Action
Plan. The five workstreams you will see featured in this report reflect that
Plan’s objectives, and the need to approach varying problems across
Somerset in different ways.
A decade on, a lot has been achieved, but there is still much more to be
done. 2023-24 showed climate change intensifying flooding problems
across our county, lashing with more force and unpredictability. Total up
all the places hit countywide – like the Cam valley in May, West Somerset
and the Tone catchment in September, Shepton Mallet and Croscombe
in October, Brue settlements for months in the winter – and many more
properties flooded than in 2014. This time round, we saw no big national
or regional commotion about this flooding, because it was often so
scattergunned, but we know from talking to people affected that their
experiences were still shattering.

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Partners in the SRA are Somerset Council, the Axe Brue and Parrett
Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs), the Environment Agency, Natural
England, Wessex Regional Flood & Coastal Committee, and Wessex
Water. To help strengthen our partnership, and keep going above
and beyond what partners can achieve individually for Somerset, we
have drawn up a new strategy for 2024-34, evolved from the 2014
Flood Action Plan. Our core purpose (to “reduce the risks and impacts
of flooding”), our core principles (“acting on local priorities, working
together, doing extra”), our five objectives and our catchment approach
are all covered on page 45 of this report.

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For 2023-24, the SRA got just over £3million through council tax, and
the IDBs contributed £20,000. The sums we get are still tied to the level
at which they were set in 2016-17. They still enable much good work to
be done, but in real terms their value has decreased, while demands
upon the SRA’s funding and our partners’ funding have increased. The
Environment Agency locally, for example, gets less than half what it bids
for from central government for maintenance.
As we approach the SRA’s 10th anniversary, we face some hard
constraints and challenges, but as a partnership we are determined to
push on with a range of initiatives within Somerset catchments. Plans
include following up on fresh modelling we commissioned for the River
Brue lowlands, and encouraging more organisations to apply to us for
grants big and small.
I trust that this report will show you how much Somerset Rivers Authority
has been doing for you across Somerset and suggest what we might
achieve together over the next few years. As ever, please get in touch
with us if you have any comments or questions.
Below: Thinking about the future in Glastonbury
(see page 43).

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At a glance: SRA 2023-24

£3.8m
EXTRA

100s

Enhanced
dredging

spent in Somerset
by Somerset Rivers Authority
(SRA) on flood risk reduction,
resilience and adaptation,
new SRA Strategy produced

of Somerset places benefit,
major projects part or
wholly-funded include
Bridgwater Tidal Barrier,
River Brue modelling

trial on the River Parrett
combines water injection
dredging and traditional
ways to remove bank silt
build-ups

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inspections
Two outfall structures
upgraded as part of the River
Sowy – King’s Sedgemoor
Drain Enhancements Scheme,
Dunball Sluice refurbishment
continues

Around
23,000
highway
structures
get extra maintenance to
reduce flood risks, drainage
improvements designed for
Wellsprings in Taunton, road
flood warning system put in
for Ham and Ruishton

Natural Flood Management
schemes and activities
at more than 50 places
countywide, funding for
Somerset Beaver
Strategy and peat trials

of Sustainable Drainage
Systems (SuDS) at new
developments, studies finish
in Minehead, Shepton Mallet,
Croscombe, and advance in
Taunton area

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events
Climate adaptation plan
involving SRA community
developed in Glastonbury,
engagement officers, who
four Moor Associations start, work with 24 communities on
seven communities get
flood resilience and emergency
grants for equipment, more
preparedness, and start
get local flood warning systems
schools project

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Workstream 1: Dredging &
River Management
In 2023-24, Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) spent more on Dredging and
River Management than on all its other workstreams put together. Most
of the projects in this section are complex, so generally take more than a
year to deliver. Some are wholly funded by the SRA, some part-funded.

Dredging and silt-monitoring
In January 2024 a new
combination of dredging
methods was successfully
tried out along parts of
the River Parrett between
Burrowbridge and the M5
bridge. This activity was
organised for Somerset
Rivers Authority by the
Parrett Internal Drainage
Board (IDB). In selected
spots where build-ups of silt were judged to be the biggest nuisance,
excavators scooped sediments from the upper bank of the river (called
its shoulder) and put them down into the path of a Water Injection
Dredging (WID) vessel working in the river (pictured above and below).
The WID vessel used powerful jets of water to agitate and disperse the
sediments placed in its way, so they were washed out on the tide.
This dredging was done
because the Parrett, as a
tidal river, gets enormous
amounts of sediments
coming in from the sea.
Vast quantities also
enter from the Parrett’s
catchment (which is 770
square kilometres, or 478
square miles).
The build-up of sediments
in the Parrett reduces
the river’s cross-sectional area and hence its effectiveness as a flood
channel. The removal of consolidated sediments reduces flood risks
for people, properties, roads and land, particularly in the area around
Moorland which was so badly hit in 2014.

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More than eight years of SRA-funded experimentation and knowledgebuilding went into the combined dredging trial of January 2024. It
sought to blend the most useful elements of several important strands of
work.

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Firstly, silt monitoring twice a year since 2015. SRA partners have
amassed a detailed panoramic picture of how sediments come, go
and get to stick around in the tidal section of the Parrett between
Burrowbridge and the M5 bridge. Thus trends can be observed and
target areas selected.
Secondly, the SRA has funded various techniques of dredging with longreach excavators (on the Parrett and elsewhere), both for major reprofiling of river banks through so-called pioneer dredging and for less
drastic works of maintenance dredging designed to preserve channels’
capacity to convey water.
Thirdly, the SRA has also
funded various different
techniques of Water Injection
Dredging, working through the
Parrett IDB with contractors
Van Oord. Water Injection
Dredging is much cheaper,
much quicker and much less
disruptive than traditional
dredging using excavators.
Water Injection Dredging
targets what is known as the
thalweg of the river, the central
part of its lower channel, six
metres wide in the case of
the Parrett. Scientific studies
in 2016 and 2017 found this
method to be effective in
removing sediments, also that
it could lead to unwanted
build-ups on river banks being
washed away through a process of steepening, slumping and natural
scouring. However, it had become increasingly noticeable over the years
that silt and vegetation (including trees) were encroaching on some
upper banks, on the shoulder of the river.
Reviews of data by the Parrett IDB in 2023 found that cross-sectional
areas of the river were reducing over time, even with annual Water
Injection Dredging. Working with partners and contractors (Van Oord,
WM Longreach), the IDB therefore devised and implemented the
targeted fusion of methods described above.

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It was seen to produce improved results: partners invited onto the
dredging vessel during the works were unanimously impressed.
However, the full extent of the works’ success could not immediately be
established. This was because post-dredging survey works had to be
delayed due to high water levels from March through to May.
Lessons learned from the January 2024 trial will be used to inform the
approach taken to combined Water Injection Dredging and Shoulder
dredging works over the impending winter of 2024-25.

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River Sowy - King’s Sedgemoor Drain (KSD) Enhancements
Scheme (Phase 1)
The River Sowy is also known as the Parrett Flood Relief Channel. It was
created between 1969 and 1972, to take excess water away from the
River Parrett near Aller, downstream of Langport. Water flows into the
Sowy through a sluice called Monk’s Leaze Clyse near Combe north-west
of Langport. It goes down via Beer Wall beneath the A372 near Othery to
King’s Sedgemoor Drain (KSD) near Greylake, then it re-joins the Parrett
through Dunball Sluice, 22km (13.5 miles) after it went through Monk’s
Leaze Clyse.
The SRA has funded improvements to the Sowy-KSD system since
2016. The main aim of Phase 1 Enhancements has been to increase the
amount of water that can flow, in a controlled way, through the SowyKSD system, and thereby help to reduce flood risks for homes, businesses
and roads across 150 square miles of the Somerset Levels and Moors.
SRA partners have also needed to ensure that legally-protected
wetlands of international importance are not made less wet, as a result
of more water being kept in river channels. For example, around 100
water level management control structures have been upgraded. These
help to maintain and improve habitats.

Activities in 2023-24
The Environment Agency, as an SRA partner, finished refurbishing
Parchey Tilting Weir in May 2023 and Level Rhyne outfall in August
2023. The aim was to enable these structures to cope with more water
flowing through the KSD and to keep that water in channel, not let it leak
out onto land nearby through (for example) poor-quality headwalls or
unsuitable valves.
Parchey Tilting Weir was in poor condition.
Works (pictured right) included:
1. the installation of a new tilting weir,
new sheet-pile wingwalls with reinforced
concrete capping beams, and a new winch
mechanism for the flap valve already there.
2. To comply with Eels Regulations
(designed to help these endangered
creatures survive and increase in numbers),
a new eel pass was fitted.
3. To meet current operator and public health and safety standards, the
fencing and railings were replaced, and new open mesh flooring was
installed with safe access and egress, to lessen the risks of falling from
height and working in confined spaces.

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The Environment Agency also completed
Level Rhyne outfall works in August 2023
(pictured right and below). These involved
replacing a through-embankment culvert
pipe, which was old and in poor condition,
with a new pipe; installing new watertight
headwalls at both ends of the pipe (the
old inlet and outlet were leaky); and fitting
an eel-friendly, soft-closing flap valve at
the outlet to stop KSD water getting into
the pipe. The ground above the pipe was
upgraded to help support the weight of
farm machinery and construction vehicles
needing to move along there.
The Environment Agency’s project team
also completed designs for a range
of similar improvements at Chedzoy
Tilting Weir and KSD Back Ditch outfall,
and they bought various necessary
components. Works were meant to be
done in the autumn but a problem with
national Environment Agency framework
contracting rules meant that a new
contractor had to be found. Works were
re-scheduled to January 2024, but
could not be done then because the
two sites were under water. Faced then
with various financial impediments to rescheduling works again to the
spring or summer, the Environment Agency decided that it could not
continue with these schemes, instead it would hand over its designs and
purchases to another SRA partner.
The Parrett Internal
Drainage Board (IDB)
agreed that it would
investigate ways forward
for the SRA. The Parrett
IDB had previously
agreed (in November
2023) that it would also
work on plans for the
completion of up to 1.8kms
of KSD left bank-raising.
A range of activities
followed, such as reviews
of existing plans and
designs, site inspections
and detailed engagements with consultants and contractors. The SRA
Board’s declared intent remains that Sowy-KSD Phase 1 works should be
finished.

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Dunball Sluice
Part-funded by the
SRA, the Environment
Agency has been
carrying out a major
£4.2million programme
of improvements at
Dunball Sluice (right).
The Sluice sits at the
bottom end of the SowyKing’s Sedgemoor Drain
(KSD) system, north of
Bridgwater. It is used to
control flows between the
KSD and the River Parrett. A crucial piece of infrastructure, first used in
1971, it is now being refurbished to help it keep going for another 25 years.
Dunball Sluice is 23.95m wide. It has
four main openings known as eyes (4
metres wide). Each eye is fitted with
two vertical lifting gates (4.26m wide x
3.04m high) and a tidal flap.
In 2023-24, the gates for Eyes 3
and 4 were shotblasted, inspected,
refurbished (or renewed), repainted
and put back on site.
The tidal flap valve for Eye 4 was
refurbished and refitted.
New seals were fitted, and a leakage
test successfully carried out.
Northern bypass channel equipment (tide flap, penstock and tilting weir)
was also refurbished (see above). This part of the Sluice had been out of
operation for several years; it is now back in service.
Works paused over the winter so the Sluice could be fully used for water
level management. Upgrades resumed in 2024 with the refurbishment
of the southern bypass channel and complete re-cabling and renewal of
control systems. The whole scheme is currently scheduled to be finished
in autumn 2024.

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Bridgwater Tidal Barrier
Bridgwater Tidal Barrier is a major £249million project led by the
Environment Agency and Somerset Council, with contributions from
Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) and - until 2019 - from the Heart of the
South West Local Enterprise Partnership. A barrier will reduce flood risks
to more than 11,300 homes and 1,500 businesses, and benefit the local
area by £2billion.
The project has three main elements:
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•

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a Tidal Barrier across the River Parrett between Express
Park and Chilton Trinity (artist’s impression below)
4.3 kilometres (2.67 miles) of new flood defence banks and
2.8 kilometres (1.74 miles) of raised banks downstream at
Chilton Trinity, Combwich and Pawlett
and fish and eel passage improvements at 12 sites
upstream of the barrier

Activities in 2023-24
Good progress was made during the year. Activities included:
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submission of a Full Business Case to HM Treasury
•
completion of an access track to the barrier site and

site compound, and the start of works to extend haul road

access to downstream defences
•
test pile driving to assess the local impacts of noise and

vibration, and work out how best to mitigate those
•
near-completion of detailed designs for the barrier and

downstream defences, drawing upon analysis of test pile
driving data
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archaeological works, community drop-ins, school visits
The Full Business Case for the Barrier was approved in September 2024
and the Barrier is expected to be operational by early 2027.

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River Brue modelling
The SRA commissioned a fresh look at flood risks associated with the
River Brue, because existing modelling done in 2014 was inadequate
and out of date. Substantially improved modelling was completed in
November 2023.
AW Water Engineering Ltd and consultants at WSP studied how much
water the Brue conveys, and how water moves – and is moved – around
the river’s lowland catchment.
SRA partners helped. The Environment Agency, in particular, provided
data and reviewed the work done.
Maps indicating likely flooding have been produced for various
scenarios. Data can also be examined in other formats, such as detailed
tables and cross-section graphs.
The new modelling is expected to be most useful for studying the impact
of possible flood risk reduction works on high flows and flood flows,
main rivers and moor areas. Possible initiatives could include seeking to
optimise pumping procedures, increasing the capacity and connections
of main river and larger rhyne channels, and testing proposed
environmental schemes and upland catchment improvements.
Because the SRA’s primary focus is on flooding, the model was not
designed to be as useful for studying low flows (droughts) or for
assessing works just on smaller rhynes.
Those reservations aside, the model is a valuable tool for organisations
proposing projects along the River Brue, especially in the wake of the
flooding that badly affected the Brue valley over the autumn and winter
of 2023-24. Using the model will provide evidence for how and where
a variety of improvements should work best and how any competing
interests might be reconciled.
Somerset Council, as an SRA partner, agreed at a meeting in April 2024
that its Flood and Coastal Water Management team would lead a
project to understand different scenarios in the Brue catchment, test the
pros and cons of possible interventions, and develop recommendations
for action.

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Strategic Approach to Mitigation
Natural England – as a partner in the SRA – completed a Strategic
Approach to Mitigation for flood risk reduction projects on the Somerset
Levels and Moors. The aim of developing this Approach was:
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•
•
•

•

to reduce costs and risks
enable projects to go ahead
secure environmental benefits
support local community, farming, business
and tourism interests
satisfy local and national policies

The Somerset Levels and Moors are internationally important for
wetland wildlife: for breeding birds, wintering birds, invertebrates,
grasslands, aquatic plants and ditch dwellers. The area’s status is
honoured and protected through numerous designations with legal
force, including a Special Protection Area (SPA), Ramsar classification
and 12 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). The area is also
important for food production, tourism, carbon storage - and for holding
water during times of flood. The Strategic Approach to Mitigation is
intended to ensure that future flood risk schemes firstly do not harm this
special area and secondly - where possible – that they contribute to its
protection.
Four reports were produced, split into two categories: Condition
(Functionally Linked Land, Monitoring Protocol) and Conservation
(reviews of Raised Water Level Areas and Water Level Management
Plans).
Functionally Linked Land: This means areas of land or sea which are
outside the boundaries of designated sites but still critical to the success
of those sites. In 2023-24, Natural England finished a report about
areas of wet grasslands on floodplains used by wintering birds, to better
understand how those birds use the landscape and how better to protect
them.
Monitoring Protocol: In 2022-23, Natural England used SRA funding
to commission the British Trust for Ornithology to carry out a full
assessment of bird of population trends in the Special Protection Area.
Subsequently, going into 2023-24, they liaised with partners about
setting up a monitoring working group that could design and enact
a monitoring protocol. This would use the better knowledge gained
through the Approach process to more accurately assess schemes
more quickly, better measure impacts and better target any necessary
mitigation activities.

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Raised Water Level Areas (RWLAs): In 2023-24, Natural England finished
a report on possible future alternatives to RWLAs, which are areas of
land engineered so that water levels can be held higher than they are in
surrounding areas. The point of doing this is to provide better breeding and
wintering conditions for waders and wildfowl.

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Moorlinch (above) was used as a case study. All of the organisations
consulted for this RWLA report (the Environment Agency, Natural England,
the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Somerset Drainage Boards
Consortium, Somerset Rivers Authority, Somerset Wildlife Trust) agreed that
RWLAs could and should be improved.
Water Level Management Plans (WLMPs): WLMPs affect how water is
managed across the Somerset Levels and Moors. They were produced
quite a few years ago and many changes have occurred since they were
written (for example, the King’s Sedgemoor and Aller Moor WLMP dates
from July 2010).
Natural England used SRA funding to commission consultants at JBA
to work on a possible framework for the updating of WLMPs. In 2023,
JBA produced a report exploring why WLMPs need to be updated and
offering some suggestions for how. Topics featured include water quality
and quantity, nature recovery, peat restoration, and climate change.
As a result of all this work for the SRA, Natural England says it will be
able to assess the impacts of flood defence schemes more easily, give
stronger advice about necessary mitigation activities and understand
better where conservation efforts should be made now to bring benefits
in future.

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Wellington Waterways
Close together and interlinked on the north-west side of Wellington sit
Tone Works and Tonedale Mill. Large textile mills, mostly built in the 19th
and early 20th centuries, now derelict. They used to be fed and powered
with water by an intricate system of waterways and structures, natural
and diverted tributaries of the River Tone, interlaced with leats, millraces, culverts, holding ponds, weirs, sluices and gates (pictured). Some
waterways sit within 63 acres of redundant farmland bought by Somerset
West and Taunton Council, passed over to Somerset Council in 2023.
Working closely with
Historic England
and a range of other
organisations, the council
wants to protect and
find new uses for this
manufacturing complex.
It’s judged by Historic
England to be the most
important complex of its
kind in the South West,
and one of the most
important in England.
It includes 15 Listed
Buildings, three of them
classified as rare Grade
II*, 12 as Grade II.

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In March 2023, the SRA agreed to fund a study of how the complex,
land nearby and its wider catchments, could be used to reduce
flood risks upstream, around Wellington, and downstream towards
Taunton. Somerset Council commissioned consultants at Arup, and
as part of a much wider investigation into possibilities for the whole
site, they completed their flood-related research in March 2024.

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An important part of this research
was involvement with local people,
groups and organisations such as
the Wellington Town Council Green
Corridor Advisory Board. As the
council’s project manager wrote
to the SRA: “Our engagement
throughout the project with the
community was a key part of
the process and their input was
invaluable... We were really pleased
with the amount of input and
passion from the community and
hope to foster this going forward in
future works and projects.”
Several different approaches were taken in the flooding study. Two
examples. Firstly, Arup looked at the potential impacts of introducing
numerous Natural Flood Management measures across a large part
of the River Tone catchment (62.7km2, upstream of Tone Works and
downstream of Clatworthy Reservoir) and the Back Stream catchment
(upstream of Tonedale Mill). They calculated that up to 109,000m3
and 33,500m3 of water could be held back and stored in the Tone and
Back Stream catchments respectively, if landowners were successfully
engaged and enough land was made available. Peak flood flows could
be reduced by up to 11.5% and 14.9% respectively.

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Secondly, different possibilities were
considered for the actual complex
of historic mills. A strategic decision
was taken by Somerset Council and
consultees to opt for resilience to
flooding rather than resistance. This
means not seeking to prevent flooding
entirely but aiming instead to make
places safe during flooding and able to
recover quickly from any flooding. So, in
practice no flood walls up to two metres
high are envisaged, as these would compromise the mills’ heritage value
and also simply be quite dangerously hard to build within the sites’ many
physical constraints. This stance is acknowledged by the project team
to be bold. Resilience measures are rarely opted for when flood depths
(as at Tone Works) are expected to reach up to 1.6 metres in the kind of
flooding that has a 1% chance of happening every year. And experiences
from elsewhere in the country (places such as York, Stockport and
Caernarfon) suggest that to have a secure future, sites need to be able
to achieve some kind of commercial viability. The project team’s hope
for Wellington is that it will become “a national exemplar” for flood
resilience in buildings of heritage value. Interest has been expressed by
Historic England “in enhancing and embracing the existing connection
to water creatively”. In the next two to three years, the Environment
Agency intends to carry out more modelling for the main watercourses
in the Wellington area, which can then be used to help firm up plans for
flood reduction and resilience works.

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Taunton Strategic Flood Alleviation
Improvements Scheme (TSFAIS)
The main purpose of Taunton Strategic Flood Alleviation Improvements
Scheme (TSFAIS) is to reduce flood risks to 1,031 properties arising from the
River Tone and its complex network of tributaries. TSFAIS has been partfunded by the SRA since 2016. In 2016-17, the SRA contributed Growth Deal
funding from the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership.
During 2023-24, three initial TSFAIS projects were led by Somerset Council
and the Environment Agency. Brief updates:
1. River Tone Left Bank Flood Defences – raising low spots from Frieze
Hill to Town Bridge. Consultants Binnies produced outline designs for
improved flood defences. A well-attended public drop-in session was held
in March 2024. Progress has been complicated by the need to comply
with regulations introduced in February 2024, requiring this project to
produce a 10% increase in biodiversity. The project team have been
looking at ways to achieve this.
2. Raise Firepool Lock gates and build up to 750 metres of River
Tone flood defence, from Firepool Lock to the A358 Obridge Viaduct.
Consultants WSP created a ‘Truncated Flood Model’ to reduce modelling
run times, to help with the consideration of the combined benefits of
different short-term measures.
3. Longrun Meadow flood attenuation improvements – increasing
the storage of excess water from the river, controlling when it floods
and when that water is released back into the Tone through new
embankments, inlet and outlet structures. After delays caused by local
government reorganisation, consultants WSP were commissioned to work
on a draft delivery programme. It is currently expected that it will take
two years to get planning permission for improvements, and two years to
construct them.

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Resetting the River Aller on Exmoor
A three-year floodplain reconnection project on the National Trust’s
Holnicote Estate in the west of Somerset was successfully completed in
July 2023.
Using the innovative ‘Stage 0’ river restoration technique, first pioneered
in the US state of Oregon, the Trust created a new waterscape. Main
moves included:
•
filling in a 1.2km section of the River Aller (that was

managed, straightened, deepened) with over 4,000 tonnes
of earth
•
pinning or part-burying 700 tonnes of fallen Holnicote

timber within the floodplain, to significantly slow flows of

water downstream and help develop a variegated wetland

(with more channels, pools and marsh) that is good for
wildlife
•
sowing 250kg of floodplain wildflower seeds
•
planting 25,000 native trees such as willow, bird cherry and
black poplar
The project was the first in the UK to attempt to reset a main river on
such an ambitious scale. Part of the National Trust’s multi-million pound
Riverlands initiative, funding also came from the EU’s Interreg 2Seas CoAdapt programme, the Environment Agency, Somerset Rivers Authority
(SRA), the Green Recovery Challenge Fund and Frugi.
It followed on from a series of smaller natural flood management
schemes locally, all part-funded by the SRA, and it has been further
complemented by a recent 125-hectare extension of the River Aller
project upstream at Tivington Farm, again part-funded by the SRA.
The combined impact of all these works has been monitored since
2019 by researchers from Exeter University. At sites across the River
Aller catchment, they used level sensors and flow meters to capture
data every 15 minutes, so by the end of March 2024 they had 52,099
datapoints from a period which endured 87 rainstorms. They also
gathered rainfall data from gauges and radar, and conducted regular
drone surveys.
Preliminary analysis carried out in April 2024, using a variety of
techniques, showed a 38% reduction in peak flood flows after the
completion of the Stage 0 works. That benefits nearly 100 properties
downstream in places such as Allerford and Bossington, which have
historically been vulnerable to flooding, and roads such as the A39
between Porlock and Minehead. Results also show that the increased
floodplain connectivity and water storage offered by the Stage 0
works are slowing the flow of water downstream. There is more of a lag
between rain and surge. The researchers note that as the Stage 0 works
were completed quite recently, more changes can be expected as the
site develops, for example as many thousands of trees grow.

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Pictured above, going clockwise: an aerial view of the River Aller site; SRA Chair Councillor Mike
Stanton being interviewed for BBC Breakfast; grey wagtail; Holnicote timber on the floodplain.

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Langport flow station
A new flow station was completed at Langport, jointly funded by the
SRA and the Environment Agency. It entered service in summer 2023,
then when heavy rains fell and higher flows arose at the end of summer,
several visits were made by the Environment Agency’s Hydrometry and
Telemetry team to calibrate its equipment for accurate readings.
The flow station now measures how much water is going down the
Parrett from a catchment of approximately 770 square kilometres (478
square miles) towards the Somerset Levels and Moors. Such information
is especially valuable in times of flood. Used in combination with data
from existing gauges at Chiselborough, Yeovil, Donyatt and Stathe,
figures from Langport flow station help people to make important
decisions about how best to respond in difficult situations.

Desilting structures
Somerset Council budgets allow for structures to be desilted when there
is a threat to structures themselves, for example of them being damaged
because of the amount and weight of material accumulated. Extra SRA
funding allows for works in and around structures that also improve
watercourses – and benefit nearby roads, land and properties.
Three structures were desilted in 2023-24 by Somerset Council.
They were:
Hendford Hill culvert in Yeovil, where Dodham Brook goes under the A30
on its way down to Ninesprings, just below the former Railway Inn and
Bradfords, near the busy A30-A3088 roundabout which is vulnerable to
flooding.
North Petherton and Bypass culvert, beneath the A38 Fore Street, in an
area vulnerable to flooding, close to the entrance to the community hall
where the stream comes down from Watery Lane on its way towards the
school.
Sawyers Hill between J26 of the M5 and West Buckland, where a large
amount of debris was cleared. Below: Sawyers Hill before and after.

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Source page 21

Workstream 2: Land
Management including
Natural Flood Management
(NFM)
Somerset Rivers Authority funds many land management and Natural
Flood Management (NFM) activities across Somerset. Various techniques
are used, singly or in combinations designed to suit to local needs and
conditions. All share the aim of reducing local flood risks, by slowing the
flow of water down through catchments in ways that work with nature.
This workstream is led for the SRA by the Farming & Wildlife Advisory
Group SouthWest (FWAG SW).
Activities generally go under the popular local branding of Hills to Levels.

Natural flood management schemes
Ten schemes were completed across Somerset during 2023-24. More
were planned between October 2023 and March 2024, but wet weather
swept many activities to April 2024 and beyond. Schemes were:
Pudleigh Mill, Wadeford near Chard,
River Parrett catchment, two linked
schemes developed with community
involvement. The first created
a backwater next to a tributary
of the River Isle and the old mill
leat. Doing this involved clearing
vegetation, dredging the mill leat to
remove stones and gravel deposited
during flooding in June 2021, and
reconnecting the tributary to its
floodplain. The second scheme
involved live-laying alder and sycamore trees across this watercourse to
act as natural flow spreaders and thereby increase the amount of water
stored in the new backwater and suitable land nearby. The aim is to
help reduce local flood risks, especially to homes in Court Mill Lane and
properties downstream.

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Source page 22

Hill Farm, Barrington, River Parrett
catchment, 650 trees and 10 shrubs
planted in hillside fields above
the village to help slow the flow
of water down to properties and
roads (especially Silver Street) and
reduce the run-off of sediment. The
latest in a series of schemes locally,
including the installation of an SRAfunded silt-trap in Bonnings Lane,
Barrington, and earlier rounds of
tree and hedge-planting around
Hill Farm, funded jointly by the SRA
and the landowner.
Hills Farm, Fitzhead,
River Tone catchment,
two scrapes (72 square
metres and 300 sqm) and
a bund were created to
hold surface water which
previously ran down a
steep slope straight into
a stream above the main
road through the village.
Raleigh Manor, Wheddon
Cross, River Avill catchment,
780 hedge plants were
planted to make a new
130metre hedge along
the side of an access track
between pastures used for
grazing livestock. To guard
against farm animals
eating the new hedge
plants, 130 metres of protective fencing was also erected. The scheme’s
aim is to help slow the flow of water down the Avill catchment by cutting
across flow pathways.

22

Chargot estate,
Luxborough, Upper
Washford, West Somerset
Streams catchment,
two schemes. The first
(pictured left) installed a
cascade of three stonefaced wooden leaky dams,
well-anchored by tree
stumps. The dams help to
slow the flow of water and sediments downstream, and thereby reduce
flood risks. The second scheme (pictured on this report’s back cover)
desilted a pond (257 square metres) to increase its capacity to hold water

Source page 23

during periods of peak flow, thereby again helping to reduce flood risks
for properties in Luxborough and land downstream. The pond’s outfall
was re-designed and reinforced with stone, with a leaky letterbox-style
outlet installed to help the landowner control flows of water.
Carslake Farm, near
Stogumber, Doniford
Stream, West Somerset
Streams catchment, a pond
(450 square metres) was
created with a sluice to
allow for water levels to be
controlled. Levels can be
lowered before periods of
heavy rain to make space
for more water, thereby slowing its flow down catchment, but also in
drier times some water can be retained as a habitat and resource for
wildlife. The pond complements another SRA-funded pond created in
2022-23 and 400 trees and shrubs planted with a Trees for Water Action
Fund grant in 2023-24.
Witham Park Farm,
Witham Friary near Frome,
River Frome catchment
(source to confluence
with Maiden Bradley
Brook), 1700 hedge plants
were planted to make a
425metre hedge across
the contour of some
sloping land and along
a bank adjacent to a ditch, to intercept surface flow pathways and so
reduce flood risks down catchment. To protect the new hedge plants
from grazing livestock, 425 metres of fencing was also erected.

23

Orchard Close, Orchard Road,
Carhampton, West Somerset
Streams catchment, works
started in 2022-23 and
were completed in April
2023. Following several site
visits, and discussions with
residents and landowners, a
series of moves was made to
reduce the troublesome runoff of water from land above
Orchard Close. Works included creating a ditch around two edges of a
field where run-off water used to gather from several sources, culverting
this ditch beneath the field gateway, and using spoil that came from
making the ditch to create a bund around a new pond designed to take
water from a new feeder swale. A change in land management was also
agreed. All these works were designed to complement a series of other
SRA-funded initiatives to reduce flooding in and around Carhampton,
particularly around the A39 Carhampton Cross.

Source page 24

Highways referrals
The point of ‘highways referrals’ is to assess whether road flooding
problems could be reduced through better management of land nearby.
Places visited by FWAG SouthWest advisers included Burton, Podimore,
Roadwater, Spaxton and the south side of the A39 Quantock Road west
of Wembdon. Ideas discussed (along the A39, for example) included ditch
clearing and improvement, reducing run-off, and digging out a pond.

Soil visits
Better soil husbandry helps to reduce the run-off of surface water.
Keeping soil in good health also brings obvious benefits to farmers.
So SRA funding allows for some specific visits focused on soil condition to
be made by FWAG SW advisers, aside from the usual calculations about
ground conditions that feature in other schemes, for examples ones to do
with tree or hedge planting.
Places visited in 2023-24 included Horsehill Farm, Batcombe; Lipgate
Farm, Brewham; The Newt near Bruton; Lower Farm, Shepton Montague;
Withiel Farm, Withiel Florey; and Chorleys Farm north of Langley Marsh
near Wiveliscombe.

Community sub-catchment support
A pilot project to help Somerset groups and communities turn ideas into
action. Funding was agreed by the SRA Board after hearing from FWAG
SW that in an increasing number of places, highly motivated people
wanted to reduce flood risks in their own areas but they lacked technical
expertise, experience and confidence. A project officer could thus help by
giving technical input and support for activities judged to be effective.
A key principle of this project was that work should be initiated by
communities.
In 2023, work began in Chaffcombe, Bathpool, Ilminster, Podimore, and
Milverton. In Chaffcombe, for example, members of the village’s flood
prevention group had already drawn up a flood resilience plan. This plan
was reviewed, a village walkover was done with a hydromorphologist,
and six ideas were assessed, for wetland planting, an attenuation
pond, stream re-profiling, making better use of a water wheel,
changing farming practices north of the village, and using natural flood
management techniques to the south.

24

In the first part of 2024, a meeting of West Somerset Flood Group
was attended and places lined up for further work included Buckland
Dinham, Croscombe, Drayton, Kingston St Mary, Knole near Langport,
North Wootton, Shepton Mallet, Shepton Montague and Pitcombe, and
Spaxton. In Spaxton parish, for example, near Gothelney Hall, a site
visit in February helped to produce a scheme for reducing flooding on
Charlinch Road submitted to the SRA in early April.

Source page 25

Trees for Water Action Fund
Trees for Water is an SRA-backed Fund for tree and hedge planting
that helps people across Somerset to reduce local flood risks arising
from surface water run-off. The project is led by Reimagining the Levels,
working with the Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group SouthWest (FWAG
SW). It’s designed to suit small sites where local knowledge and expert
analysis suggest that planting will make a difference.
Planting is usually carried out by landowners and teams of enthusiastic
volunteers, many now very experienced. Momentum built up over the
last four years has encouraged all sorts of landowners to come forward,
and 31 schemes went ahead in 2023-24. In total, they planted 3,112 trees,
3,022 shrubs, and 1,136 metres of hedgerow. To guard where need be
against chomping by livestock and wildlife, 1,516 metres of fencing was
also provided.
One new and interesting trend is the introduction of agro-forestry
methods. For example, at Glebe Farm near Pitney, an alley-cropping
system is being created, with five fenced rows of trees and shrubs, each
four metres wide, spaced out across a sloping 8.9acre field with a fouryear rotational ley. In Years 1 and 2 the field is a herbal ley, in Year 3 it is
grazed by sheep, in Year 4 by pigs. The trees and shrubs help to absorb
water and reduce local flooding, they provide shade for the sheep and
pigs, they offer crops of fruits and nuts, and they provide extra habitats
for wildlife. A similar but smaller scheme was planted at Woodland
Farm near Sparkford, 150 metres north of the River Cam, an area which
flooded badly in May 2023. The aim here is to reduce run-off while also
supporting the growing of produce for a South Indian food stall business.
On land owned by the Manor House on the edge of Upton Noble,
changes have been rooted in detailed analysis of old maps, aerial
photography, ditches, ponds and the headwaters of the Brue. In a
statement in his application to the SRA, the landowner said: “My own
family took over the house and fields – all of which have always been for
grazing - from my parents who moved here in 1982. Historically, as with
so many fields round here, the fields were smaller once upon a time. I
wanted to see whether we could recreate something of that, not least
because of a belief that smaller fields would hold water better, and also
because we could then re-wild particular fields in a systematic way, since
we no longer require so much grazing.” The landowner re-cut a ditch,
created a pond, bund and banks, and used funding from Trees for Water
to plant three lengths of hedgerow, “all of which will help to hold back
water”, and all of which have helped to recreate four separate small
fields.

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Source page 26

A full list of Trees for Water places in 2023-24:
Ashcott, Potato Cottage, Station Road; Axbridge, Sleepy Hollow, Stone
Allerton; Bradford-on-Tone, Bradford Court; Bruton, Coombe Farm,
Coombe Hill; Burcott, Burcott Farm, Burcott, about a mile west of Wells;
Wookey Farm, a five-acre field near the B3139 at Wookey Road; Butleigh,
Sourdown Farm, Sub Road; Charlton Adam, The Barton;
Hatch Beauchamp, Old Rectory, Village Road; Helland, Dragonfly
Orchard, Old Sedgemoor Road; Hembury Hill, field off Castle Lane,
two miles south-west of Wells near Wookey; Limington, Chasers,
Higher Farm; Lottisham, Rookery Farm, about halfway between
Glastonbury and Castle Cary; Knapp, Knappwoods Farm, Knapp Lane,
between Knapp and North Curry, also One Tree Farm, land at Knapp
Hill, Knapp Road near North Curry; Knole near Langport, Owls Barn,
Bineham Court, two phases of planting; North Curry, Sedgemoor
House, Sedgemoor Road; Pilton, Cedarwoods, Top Street; Pitney, Glebe
Farm; Shipham, Gruffy Ground; South Petherton, Whitfield Lane, land
owned by South Petherton Parish Council; Sparkford, Cider Apple
Trees, Off Grid Organics, Woodland Farm, three schemes all at Wyvern
Fields, Sparkford Hill Lane; Stogumber, Carslake Farm; Strutter’s
Hill, Godminster Farm, in field next to Strutter’s Hill, halfway beween
Pitcombe and Shepton Montague; Templecombe, Old Farmhouse,
Empire Farm, Throop Road; Upton Noble, Bellerica Farm; Upton Noble,
Manor House, Lower Street; Wedmore, Wedmore Village Farm, Plud
Street.
Below: Planting shrubs at One Tree Farm, Knapp

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Source page 27

Top: South Petherton Tree and Wildlife Group (TWiG) and Reimagining the Levels volunteers
planting a 70-metre hedgerow at Whitfield Lane. Bottom left: trees, shrubs, stockproof fencing,
Carslake Farm, Stogumber. Right: Trees, shrubs, Hembury Hill above Hay Moor, River Sheppey.

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Source page 28

Wellhams Brook water storage study
In March 2022, the SRA Board agreed to fund a study assessing the
feasibility of creating a 4-acre storage pond on land near Wellhams Mill
in the Wellhams Brook catchment between the Houndstone and Lufton
side of Yeovil and Martock. Water from Wellhams Brook (8.88km long,
catchment size 26.61km2) flows down to the River Parrett.
In autumn 2022, for the SRA, FWAG SW appointed consultants JBA to
model catchment flows and examine the practicalities, and potential
flood risk reduction benefits, of a large new water storage area.
JBA completed their report in November 2023. Instead of recommending
one single new facility, capable of holding so much water it would qualify
as a reservoir (a classification which imposes strict legal obligations),
a series of ponds was proposed. Namely, five storage areas up to two
metres deep with a total surface area of 1.94 hectares and a total
capacity of around 38,000m2. Estimated cost, including a 60% risk
allowance: £734,400. Estimated flood risk reduction benefits: £619,000,
rising to £976,642 when benefits to nature were included.
Modelling suggested the five ponds would result in various slight delays
to peak flood flows of up to one hour and various small reductions to
flood extents in some areas. They would reduce average modelled flood
depths in a range of scenarios (from every two-year type floods up to
every 100-year type floods) by up to 0.9 centimetres (from 19.2cms to
18.3cms in an every 100-year type flood). In the case of an every five year
type-flood they would increase it from 16.2cms to 16.5cms. Figures varied
a little if a tilting weir was added to the final pond.
SRA technical group members, in a discussion about this study in March
2024, felt the benefits of creating these five ponds would be marginal.
It was agreed that Somerset Council’s Flood and Coastal Management
team should look more closely at the modelling and cost-benefit
analysis, to assess what should be done next.

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Source page 29

Somerset Beaver Strategy
After being driven to extinction in Britain 300 to 400 years ago, beavers
were re-introduced in 2002, at an enclosed site in Kent. This initiative
spurred more moves countrywide. In 2019, beavers of unknown origin
were found to be living in the catchment of the River Frome in Somerset.
In January 2020, a pair of beavers were released into a strongly-fenced
enclosure on the National Trust’s Holnicote estate in West Somerset
(pictured above: one of many Holnicote schemes part-funded by the
SRA in the run-up to the major River Aller resetting - see pages 18-19).
In 2021, the SRA Board agreed to fund the production of a Somerset
Beaver Strategy by FWAG SW and Somerset Wildlife Trust, recognising
widespread public interest in beavers, and acknowledging that more
beavers were likely to end up inhabiting parts of Somerset, so it would
make sense to agree solid plans for managing them. Somerset Wildlife
Trust and FWAG SW began working in partnership with the National
Trust, the Beaver Trust, and Exeter University. There was a pause for a
government consultation about beavers in England, which resulted in
October 2022 in them becoming a protected species.

Activities in 2023-24
Following an initial public consultation in 2022, Somerset Wildlife Trust
and project partners (as listed above) liaised with the Environment
Agency, Natural England, Somerset Council, Wessex Water and other
relevant statutory bodies and authorities. They consulted with numerous
stakeholders and organisations such as the National Farmers Union
(NFU) and Country Land and Business Association (CLA), the fisheries
sector and local flood groups. In 2023, Somerset Wildlife Trust recruited a
Human-Wildlife Co-existence officer (not funded by the SRA).

29

A first draft of a Somerset Beaver Strategy was produced towards the
end of 2023, with nearly 150 pages of technical details in hundreds of
maps, charts and tables. Reviewing this draft, SRA Technical Group
members suggested some re-balancing. A Technical Background
Report was therefore created, along with a forward-looking, less dataintensive, and more goal-orientated Strategy and Implementation Plan.

Source page 30

Further stakeholder events were held in May 2024, and a further-revised
Strategy went out for public consultation in August 2024. The Strategy’s
overall aim is to build as much understanding and consensus around
matters involving beavers as possible, so that decisions can be taken
which are well-informed, evidence-based and science-led. In short, to
form agreements about what is best for people, beavers and different
parts of Somerset.

Somerset Levels and Moors peat trials
In March 2022, the SRA agreed to part-fund the running of a trial scheme
of payments for the preservation and restoration of peat in two to four
small areas of the Somerset Levels & Moors. Areas of wet low-lying peaty
land are important to the SRA because they can act as a buffer against
flooding. The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra)
is keen for lessons to be learned from a trial so that Environmental Land
Management schemes (ELMs) can “reward farmers and land managers
for producing public goods”, such as preventing carbon dioxide (CO2) loss
from lowland peat.
Two landowners are taking part. Many more expressed an interest
but involvement in other schemes meant they were not eligible. Trials
began at the start of 2024 on a few fields on Queen’s Sedgemoor near
Glastonbury and a much larger area of nearly 100 acres on Lang Moor
near Westonzoyland. Trials will finish at the end of 2024.

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Source page 31

Workstream 3: Urban Water
Management
The main aims of Somerset Rivers Authority’s Urban Water Management
workstream (W3) are to reduce local flood risks and make places better
to live and work.
When it rains, Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) help to control the
run-off of water from hard surfaces like roads, roofs and pavements.
SuDS use techniques inspired by nature – such as permeable paving and
plants and ponds – to absorb water and hold it back. SuDS can make
places greener and more attractive, healthier for people and better for
wildlife, with less pollution.

SuDS Inspections
In 2023-24, as in previous years, a lot of close attention was devoted in
this workstream to examining Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) at
new developments.
Very few formal SuDS inspection processes are in place across England.
This situation is expected to change when Schedule 3 of the Flood
and Water Management Act (2010) is implemented. In the meantime,
Somerset is ahead in checking new developments.
The SRA and its partners want to ensure that SuDS are built in
accordance with the exact designs that were approved by local planning
authorities, and that they work as they are meant to work. Inspectors
check schemes for compliance against 16 different criteria.

Left: Headwall at Holwell Lane, Cheddar.
Right: Headwall interconnecting balancing basins at Brimsmore, Yeovil.
At most places, it is generally found that SuDS features are installed in
accordance with approved drawings and specifications.

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Source page 32

Where problems are found, Somerset Council has the power to enforce
changes. So recently, for example, at Sandy Moor, Wiveliscombe, it was
found that a crucial flow control device had not been installed by the
developer. Somerset Council considered taking enforcement action for
potential breaches of drainage conditions, but close liaison between
the SRA-funded SuDS Inspector and the developer led eventually to the
necessary equipment being ordered and installed. The site was then reinspected.
Special attention is paid to handover arrangements for future
maintenance, which is vital for effective SuDS operation. A re-occurring
theme found in SRA-funded inspections is delays in the handover of
SuDS infrastructure to bodies responsible for its maintenance. Delays
raise concerns about how systems’ long-term performance may be
affected, delays also increase short-term risks of flooding downstream.

Above left: Measuring an inlet pipe at
Holwell Lane, Cheddar.
Above right: Viewing flow control device
at Bancombe Road, Somerton.
Right: A balancing basin at Brimsmore,
Yeovil.
All sites inspected are added to a
SuDS register for Somerset, using
mapping software. One purpose of this
mapping is to enable future monitoring,
especially of whether maintenance is
being carried out exactly as developers
pledged during the process of getting
planning permission. The monitoring
process also allows for residents to raise concerns about SuDS features.
A useful source of information about SuDS in Somerset is a website
funded by the SRA, which includes Somerset-specific SuDS design
standards: https://dev.somerset-suds.jbahosting.com

32

This website was updated during 2023 to reflect changes such as the
launch of the new Somerset Council. The SRA and Somerset Council’s
Flood and Coastal team are keen for the Somerset-specific SuDS design
standards to be incorporated into the new Somerset Council’s planning
policy.

Source page 33

The SRA funded inspections of SuDS at 54 places in 2023-24,
here listed by former district council area:
Sedgemoor
Bridgwater, Kings Copse Phase 1; Cheddar (x2), Land at Holwell Lane,
Phase 2, and Sharpham Road; North Petherton, Chaucers Meadow, land
east of Taunton Road; Wedmore, Cross Farm.
Somerset West and Taunton
Churchinford (x2), Ford House Farm; Newberry Farm; Minehead, Bircham
Road; Norton Fitzwarren, Langford Mead Area H6, Dragon Rise;
Stogursey, Lonlay Mews, off Burgage Road; Taunton, Woodbine Cottage,
Shoreditch Road; Wellington (x2), Bagley Green; Tonedale Mill; Watchet
(x2), Churchill Way; Doniford Road; Williton, Gliddons Garage, High
Street; Wiveliscombe, Sandy Moor.
South Somerset
Aller, Orchard Place; Chard (x3), land at Avishayes Road, Oaklands
Avenue; land North of Dolling Close, Chard; former Rosebanks Works;
Crewkerne (x2), Maiden Beech; Middle Hill, Ashlands Road; Curry Rivel
(x2), Maple Road, North of Stanchester Way, Phase 1 & 2; Heale Lane;
Ilminster, Winterhay Lane; Ilton, Copse Lane; Langport (x2), Bartletts
Elm; Old Kelways; Martock, Hurst Brook; Merriott, Moorlands Farm;
Somerton (x7), Bancombe Road; Cartway Lane; Home Farm; Meadow
Lea; Northfield Farm; Ricksey Park; Sutton Road; South Petherton (x4),
Lightgate Lane; Prigg Lane; West End Close; West End View; Sparkford
(x2), Old Coal Yard; Wolverlands; Wincanton (x3), Longclose, Lawrence
Hill, and New Barns Farm, and Verrington Lane; Yeovil (x7), North of
Thorne Lane, Brimsmore, Phase 1; Bucklers Mead; Lufton Phases 1-4;
Northbrook, Site N; St Georges Ave; St Johns Road, Site P; Stourton Way.

Chard Urban Run-off Butts
One reason why Chard has flooded badly in recent years is that too much
surface water runs over land and overwhelms Chard’s combined sewers.
Combined sewers take rainwater that runs off from gutters, drains and
roads, as well as wastewater from homes and businesses.

33

In autumn 2023, to try to reduce the amount of water that runs off from
domestic gutters into Chard’s drainage networks, 460 local households
were offered free water butts. The offer was made by Wessex Water,
working together with Somerset Council, Somerset Rivers Authority
(SRA), Chard Town Council and Chard Area Resilience Group (CARG).
Letters were targeted at parts of Chard (Furnham, Crimchard, Combe
Street and Fore Street), where the installation and effective use of water
butts would help most to reduce flooding. As a result, 74 water butts
were ordered from and delivered by Wessex Water. In door-to-door visits
made by the SRA’s community engagement officers and Wessex Water
representatives, people who did not order a butt said they already had
one or more, or did not have the necessary space. A second phase of
the scheme, learning lessons from the first and targeting other suitable
areas of Chard, began in August 2024.

Source page 34

River Sheppey Catchment Action Plan
In March 2021, Somerset Rivers Authority gave Mendip District Council (as
then existed) funding for a study into the causes of repeated flooding in
the sub-catchments of Croscombe and Shepton Mallet.
These sub-catchments include Charlton, Bowlish and Darshill along
the River Sheppey, and other places such as Ham, Downside and
Bodden. Investigations were led by Mendip’s flood risk consultants
Calm Engineering, working with Somerset County Council (as then
existed), the Environment Agency and Wessex Water, the Farming and
Wildlife Advisory Group SouthWest, the Wild Trout Trust and specialist
sub-contractors. Work was almost entirely finished by March 2023, its
substance and findings as outlined in the SRA Annual Report for 202223. The reorganisation of local government in Somerset, that came into
effect on 1 April 2023, caused some delays, but a final report was given
by Calm Engineering to the new Somerset Council in autumn 2023.
The report found that various interlinked factors prompted local
flooding:
•

•

•

•
•
•

too much rain leading to saturated ground leading to
increased surface water runoff and high river levels
steep-sided catchments with hard surfaces leading to
rapid runoff of water
historic modifications of the River Sheppey channel causing
pinch points and back-ups and overflows of water
silting up of channels and culverts
blocked drains and culverts
drains and culverts lacking capacity for too much water

In the Shepton Mallet sub-catchment, the project team looked
particularly for measures that could improve matters for people and
properties in Charlton, Frog Lane, Charlton Road, Cannard’s Grave Road,
Kent/West Shepton, Leg Square and Bowlish, in the Croscombe subcatchment, for Long Street. Across the two sub-catchments, numerous
problems and possibilities were identified, ranging from culvert
rebuilding and weir removing to getting people to stop chucking garden
waste into the river. While Somerset Council is conducting Section 19
investigations into the exact causes of the most recent floods, the report
funded by the SRA is being used as a resource in regular working group
meetings with local people. Questions under consideration include which
ideas should be progressed, how, in what sequence and by whom.

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Source page 35

Minehead 25 Year Flood Action Plan
After nearly two years of work, a report into Minehead’s many flooding
problems was finalised in summer 2023. Eighty-six pages long with three
substantial appendices, it was researched and written by consultants at
WSP, and part-funded by SRA and Wessex Water, in a project led initially
by Somerset County Council (since April 2023, Somerset Council).
Minehead’s flooding problems are made worse by the ways in which
they combine risks and impacts from watercourses, farmland, woodland,
built up areas, the sea and its tides, rainfall and drainage systems that
are not fully mapped or understood. Minehead’s catchment has to be
looked at as a complicated whole, which is why WSP were asked to
produce a 2D integrated Catchment Model, as the basis for getting
a better understanding, and developing ideas for tackling flood risks
from all sources in and around Minehead. The report used WSP’s model
and historic records to identify five flooding hotspots: Woodcombe
Lane and Bratton Lane, Bratton Stream – Open Channel, Bratton
Stream – Town Culvert, Vulcan Road and Brunel Way, Alcombe Brook.
The project team then picked out nine initial options which might be a
cost-effective way of reducing flood risks in and around Minehead.
1. Use natural flood management techniques to slow flows of water
running off from farmland and woodland above Minehead.
2. Create green spaces in Minehead, such as small ponds, which can hold
back water that might otherwise run along streets and into buildings,
and then release that water slowly when the worst is over.
3. Open up a clogged rainwater pipe which was found to be buried on
the beach so that rain can flow freely into the sea.
4. Make sure that houses built south of Hopcott Road get built in ways
that do not increase flooding, by talking to developers and using the
planning system.
5. Protect individual houses so they are less likely to flood inside when
water is high outside, for example by putting in flood-proof doors.
6. Change local planning policies to help reduce flooding.
7. Get better information about old pipes under Minehead, so people
know where they are and how big they are, so they can be better
managed.
8. There are few historic records of flooding for some areas of Minehead
which the new catchment model suggests are likely to flood, so it would
be useful to talk to residents in those areas about their experiences,
partly to help assess the model as a model.
9. Look at ways to reduce blockages in the Bratton Stream area, which
can lead to water spilling into nearby gardens.

35

Wessex Water, Somerset Council and the Environment Agency are
planning to hold meetings with local residents and businesses to
discuss what has been found out and what should be done next. The
SRA is keen for actions to be taken, and has offered the support of its
community engagement team, especially after Minehead flooded again
in September 2023.

Source page 36

Taunton Flood Action Plan
The aims of this project are to better co-ordinate the management of
flood risks from all sources around Taunton and to boost investment in
measures to reduce those risks. The project is part-funded by Somerset
Rivers Authority (SRA) and by Wessex Water, as a partner in the SRA.
It’s led by Wessex Water and Somerset Council. Other partners involved
include the Environment Agency and Network Rail.
In 2023, WSP were appointed as consultants to review the large number
of existing plans, strategies, models, assessments, schemes and projects
that currently relate to Taunton and water, to help identify and analyse
gaps and problems, and to help produce costed recommendations for
action.
Flooding hotspots that partners began to study in detail during 2023-24
for this project included parts of:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Norton Fitzwarren West
Norton Fitzwarren East
Kingston St Mary
Trull and Staplehay
Taunton railway station
North Town and Firepool
Sherford Stream and Vivary Park
Cheddon Fitzpaine
Bathpool South
Creech St Michael North
Creech St Michael South
Ruishton

Other areas on a watchlist for initial investigations were:
•
•
•
•
•

Bishops Hull
Blackbrook West
Blackbrook East
Henlade
Stoke St Mary

The SRA agreed to part-fund this project because it wanted, in line with
its remit, to open up new ways for people to work together, get more
funding and spend it efficiently on local priorities. The project team are
aiming to complete their work by March 2025.

36

Source page 37

Workstream 4:
Resilient Infrastructure
In the Somerset 20 Year Flood Action Plan, drawn up in 2014, two of the
six main objectives were about making the county’s infrastructure more
resilient. They urged that access should be maintained for people and
businesses travelling within Somerset or through the county.
This imperative was picked up in the new Somerset Rivers Authority
(SRA) Strategy for 2024-34, the second of whose five objectives is to
“Maintain access and connections during times of flood for communities
and businesses across Somerset”. The SRA therefore deals with flooding
along highways as well as waterways.

Enhanced maintenance of road drainage structures
Two programmes of enhanced maintenance were organised for the SRA
by the Somerset Council Highways Department during 2023-24. These
programmes helped to keep roads open, make them safer, preserve
access for communities, and safeguard properties from flooding.

Gully emptying
Along 984 stretches of road, from Oare and Dulverton across to Frome,
and from Misterton up to Cheddar and Tellisford, SRA funding enabled
Somerset Council’s Highways Department to give around 23,000 of the
highest-risk gullies countywide a second round of emptying, six months
after their first council-funded clearout. More information about these
gullies is in the SRA website version of this SRA Annual Report 2023-24.

Drain jetting
139 drains were jetted for the SRA in 2023-24, by former Somerset district
council area as follows: 39 in Mendip; 12 in Sedgemoor; 67 in Somerset
West and Taunton; 21 in South Somerset. Under existing budgets, the
Highways Department can only afford to jet drains when a bad blockage
has occurred. SRA funding allows for earlier preventative maintenance
at locations known to suffer problems with flooding. Selections of drains
for jetting are made using local knowledge and professional judgement.

37

Mendip
Ashwick, High Street; Baltonsborough, Muchelney Road; Batcombe,
Hincombe Hill, and Westcombe Stables to Westcombe Road; Beckington,
Rudge Lane; Berkley, Bath Road / Oldford Hill; Chilcompton, Wells Road;
Coleford, Charity Lane; Ditcheat, Ditcheat Hill; Doulting, Merryfield Lane;
East Pennard, Easton Lane, and Parbrook Lane; Frome, Christchurch
St West / Badcox / Broadway, and Rodden Road, and Vallis Road;
Glastonbury, Avalon Estate, and (twice) Chilkwell Street / Coursing Batch,
and Cinnamon Lane, and Northload Bridge; Hemington, Southfield Hill;

Source page 38

Mells, Vobster Hill; North Wootton, Stocks Lane; Pilton, Compton Lane;
Rode, Rode Hill; Rodney Stoke, Stoke Road / Wells Road, and The Street;
St Cuthbert Out, Easton Hill, and Old Bristol Road; Selwood, Cole Hill;
Shepton Mallet, Martins Lane; Street, Brooks Road, and Fielding Road;
Tellisford, Old School To Bath Road; Upton Noble, Lower Street; Wells,
New Street, and St Thomas Street; Whatley, Murder Combe; Wookey,
Yarley Hill.
Sedgemoor
Bridgwater Town, Mount Street; Burnham-On-Sea & Highbridge, Bristol
Road; Burnham Without, Mark Road; Catcott, Manor Road, and
Old School Lane; Cheddar, Parsons Pen to B3151 Lower New Road;
East Huntspill, Church Road; Mark, Kingsway; Weare, Turnpike Road;
Wedmore, Wells Road; West Huntspill, Main Road; Woolavington,
Cossington Lane.
Somerset West and Taunton
Ash Priors, Combe Florey Road; Bishop’s Lydeard, Greenway, and Mill
Lane; Bradford-On-Tone, Hele Road, and (twice) Oake Road; Brompton
Ralph, Forches Cross to Cordings Ball, and Winters Lane to Elworthy
Cross; Brompton Regis, Haddon View; Burrowbridge, Stathe Road;
Carhampton, Park Lane; Chipstable, Waterrow Road; Comeytrowe,
Comeytrowe Lane; Cotford St Luke, Tithill Lane; Crowcombe, Broad Oak
Hill; Cutcombe, Exford to Wheddon Cross Road; Dulverton, Andrews Hill;
Exford, Exford to Simonsbath Road; Exmoor, Simonsbath to Blue Gate;
Huish Champflower, Chitcombe Rocks Lane; Kingston St Mary, Kingston
Road, Pickney Lane, and (twice) Yarford Road; Langford Budville,
Milverton Road; Milverton, Screedy Lane; Minehead, Brunel Way, and The
Parade, and Spring Gardens; Oake, Frog Street, and Wiveliscombe Road;
Old Cleeve, Comberow Lane, and Mount Lane; Pitminster, Blagdon Hill
Road; Porlock, Sparkhayes Lane; Ruishton, Ilminster Road; Selworthy,
Headon Cross to Tivington Cross; Skilgate, Frogwell Cross to Skilgate;
Stawley, Cockland Hill; Stogumber, Nevys Lane; Taunton, Albemarle
Road, and Corkscrew Lane, and Lambrook Road, and Hammet Street,
and Luxhay Close, and St Peters Close, and Wilton Grove; Trull, Amberd
Lane and Gatchell Green; Wellington, Bovet Street, and Hilly Head, and
Oaken Ground, and Oldway Road, and Shuteleigh, and South Street,
and Wellington Relief Road; West Buckland, Dyers Close; West Monkton,
Hyde Lane, and (twice) Monkton Heathfield Road; Williton, Williton
to Bridgwater Road (twice); Wiveliscombe, Ford Road, and Langford
Budville Road, and Maundown Road, and South Molton Road; Wootton
Courtenay, Ranscombe Road.

38

South Somerset
Barrington, Ruskway Lane; Castle Cary, The Park; Charlton Mackrell,
Withy Hays Road; East Coker, Main Street; Hinton St George, Merriott
Road, and South Street; Langport, Bow Street / Cheapside; Lopen, Mill
Lane; Montacute, Bishopston (twice), and Middle Street; Mudford, Hinton
Road; North Cadbury, Cary Road, and Corkscrew Lane, and Woolston
Road; Pen Selwood, Coombe Street; Rimpton, Back Lane; Shepton
Montague, Higher Shepton Road; Wincanton, West Hill; Yarlington,
Sticklepark Lane; Yeovilton, Podimore Road.

Source page 39

Other activities in 2023-24
Somerset Council’s Highways Department completed the installation
of a new flood warning system for Lane End in Ham and Lipe Lane in
Ruishton, funded by Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA). Both roads get
busy with local traffic and motorists seeking to avoid delays on the A358
east of Taunton, and as both roads flood seasonally, cars quite often get
abandoned and driven into ditches. To try to deter drivers from risking
lives and vehicles, five variable-messaging digital signs can now be
activated by sensors in rising flood waters. Local residents, Ruishton
Parish Council, Ham Village Flood Defence Committee, and the SRA’s
Community Engagement team all helped to develop this scheme.
In North Petherton, the SRA originally gave Sedgemoor District Council
funding for an investigation into the causes of flooding affecting
properties and the road in Baymead Lane. This study was expected to
focus on a part of the Mill Stream culvert system known to be undersized.
However, following flash flooding around North Petherton in summer
2021, it was decided to look at six other pinch-points as well. When
Sedgemoor District Council ceased to exist in March 2023, this project
passed over to the new Somerset Council. A final report was produced in
2023.
In March 2022, Somerset Rivers Authority agreed to part-fund a
Somerset County Council Highways Department scheme for drainage
improvements in the Wellsprings area of north Taunton. The main focus
was to be on reducing the risks of flash flooding to homes, roads
and Wessex Water infrastructure in Corkscrew Lane, Kingston Road,
Wellsprings Road, and Longacre Close. This scheme has now passed
over to the new Somerset Council. Designs and plans were drawn up in
2023-24, and works are expected by the end of March 2025.
A site appraisal was completed in November 2023 for a scheme to reduce
flooding along Robins Lane in Burtle, which has a long history of problems
caused by two undersized culverts and a dilapidated roadside ditch.
This scheme emerged from a previous SRA-funded Somerset Drainage
Boards Consortium programme of inspections of around 700 of the most
vulnerable and strategically important culverts in the Somerset Levels
and Moors. Following on from those inspections, work was also done to
advance plans for improvements to culverts in Buttlake Road near Brent
Knoll and Puriton Road in Mark.
Consultants WSP worked on an SRA-funded study commissioned by
Somerset County Council (since April 2023 Somerset Council) to examine
what effects a weir just downstream of the A38 at Blackbird Bends
between Taunton and Wellington could be having on flooding problems
along that stretch of very busy road.

39

Source page 40

Workstream 5:
Building Local Resilience
This Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) workstream was set up to pursue
one of the six main objectives of Somerset’s 20 Year Flood Action
Plan: “Increase resilience to flooding for families, agriculture, business,
communities and wildlife”. In 2023-24, as in previous years, the SRA
sought to fulfill that objective in several ways. These included the
encouragement of various practical moves - such as drawing up plans
and getting training and equipment - to help people across Somerset get
better prepared for any flooding. The SRA also sought to foster greater
understanding of local flood risks, of the implications of climate change
and possible adaptations to that, and of the riparian responsibilities
that come with owning watercourses and structures such as drains and
culverts. (That legal term ‘riparian’ is a Victorian coinage derived from
‘ripa’, which is Latin for river bank.)
Two new SRA community
engagement officers were recruited
in 2023. Bel Deering started in early
August, Paul Elliston early October
(they are pictured in the middle of
the photo to the right). In the period
covered by this report - to the end
of March 2024 - they took part in
123 community events, visits and
external meetings and interacted
with approximately 1,400 local people. They offered advice and support
at post-flood recovery drop-in sessions in Minehead, Wellington,
Carhampton, Shepton Mallet and Croscombe. They attended two
Winter Preparedness events organised by the Environment Agency in
Burrowbridge and Moorland and produced a newsletter for communities
in the Cam Valley who were badly flooded in May 2023.
They went to 19 Local Community Network (LCN) meetings, ran
workshops about resilience and flooding for South East Somerset and
Hestercombe LCNs, and gave presentations to Yeovil, Crewkerne and
Ilminster, and Taunton LCNs.
They worked with 24 communities on flood resilience and emergency
preparedness measures: Blackford, Bruton, Buckland Dinham, Chard,
Chilton Cantelo and Ashington, Cotford St Luke, Drayton, Greinton,
Hadspen, Ilchester (The Mead), Isle Brewers, Lower Keyford, Lydford-onFosse, Marston Magna, Misterton, North Wootton, Norton Fitzwarren,
Nynehead, Podimore, Queen Camel, Sampford Brett, Shepton
Montague, Wellington, Williton, Yarlington.

40

Sessions were tailored to address specific local flood risks and concerns
and explore options for reducing the risks and impacts of flooding. So, for
example, Bel and Paul stressed the benefits of writing emergency plans

Source page 41

with as much community involvement as possible, and promoted SRAfunded Somerset Prepared small grants for training and equipment.
Bel and Paul worked with people from SRA partner organisations on
41 occasions. For example, with other SRA colleagues, they took part in
the Somerset Prepared Community Resilience Conference on 5 October
2023. This attracted over 100 people from across Somerset. The keynote
opening speech was given by the SRA Chair Councillor Mike Stanton.
Sessions included the Environment Agency on riparian responsibilities,
Ilton and Kingston St Mary community case studies, and workshops with
Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service and Avon and Somerset
Police. The Lord Lieutenant of Somerset (Mohammed Saddiq) officiated
at the prize-giving ceremony for the annual Somerset Community
Champions award, which honours individuals and groups in Somerset
who have made their communities more resilient.
In March 2024, the SRA sponsored a Somerset Rural Life Museum
exhibition called Under the Surface. This marked the 10th anniversary of
the Somerset floods of 2013-14 by showing photographs from Matilda
Temperley’s sold-out publication Under the Surface: Somerset Floods,
alongside previously unpublished colour photographs taken by her
during the winter of 2013-14. Also on display were photographs newly
commissioned from Matilda Temperley, reflecting on changes to the
Somerset landscape over the past decade, particularly as regards flood
management. To accompany this exhibition, the SRA organised several
events and talks. The first get-together in March - a Flood Café held at
the museum in Glastonbury - was well attended. People who have been
flooded, or who have been affected by flooding, value opportunities for
connection, networking and peer support.
Also in the early months of 2024, the SRA teamed up with Somerset
Council’s Curriculum & Topic Lead officer to create resources for
Somerset schools about flooding. The aim was to produce a series
of high-quality lesson plans about the geography and history of the
Somerset Levels and Moors, with videos, presentations and ideas for
activities. These resources were tried out in school assemblies and
classrooms in summer 2024.

Grants for training and equipment
The SRA funds a small number of grants for equipment and training
given to Somerset communities by the Somerset Prepared partnership.
The SRA is a member of that partnership. Grants were given in 2023-24
to:
Combe St Nicholas Parish Council, for equipment for flood wardens
including boots, hi-viz jackets, torches, and flood warning signs. (This
application was prepared by the winner of the individual section of the
2023 Somerset Community Champions award).

41

Henstridge Parish Council, for torches, a wind-up radio, walkie talkies, foil
blankets.

Source page 42

Kilve Parish Council, for lanterns, a white board, radios.
Martock’s flood warden group (who work with Martock Parish Council), for
flood packs and hydrosnakes.
Oake Parish Council, for radios, torches, first aid kits and Personal
Protective Equipment (PPE).
Tatworth and Forton Parish Council, for a water depth board, lights, first
aid kits, hi-viz jackets and trousers, and kits for testing water quality.
Winsford Parish Council, for a storage shed, torches, hi-viz clothing,
shovels and brooms, first aid training.

Community flood warning systems
The aim of this project is to create very localised early flood warning
systems, working together with communities and Environment Agency
specialists. In some places known as ‘rapid response’ catchments, where
water levels can rise very quickly when there is heavy rain, flooding can
put people’s lives at risk.
Therefore, in a few test areas,
known to be vulnerable to rapid
flooding, local people have picked
out some telltale sites for gathering
information during times that
are very wet. At such sites, painful
experience has shown that if x
is happening with water now,
then it is very likely that problems
downstream can be expected very
soon. Telltale sites like this have been
kitted out with flood gauges and
other equipment linked to online
dashboards so that local people can
monitor what is going on, get alerts
and get prepared. The mechanisms
being used to transmit data from some very rural sites are pushing at
the edges of what is technologically possible.
In 2023-24, this project progressed through scoping exercises, local
surveys and installations of equipment. Places now involved include
Comberow and Roadwater, Monksilver, Sampford Brett and Croscombe.
After 16 villages and hamlets in the River Cam valley in the east of
Somerset were badly affected by a Major Incident of flooding in May
2023, with around 180 properties flooding inside, sites at North Cadbury,
Pitcombe, Shepton Montague and Blackford were added.

42

The project team has been working with local people to establish ways
of using information from online dashboards to improve communities’
flood preparedness and resilience. Around Porlock, Wadeford, and
Forton and Tatworth, suitable sites are still being investigated.

Source page 43

Adaptations and Associations
The SRA is keen to encourage more working together on the Somerset
Levels & Moors, to strengthen flood resilience, and enable different
kinds of adaptation to various water-related threats and opportunities.
Between 2019 and 2023, the SRA and the EU’s Interreg 2 Seas
programme jointly funded an initiative called Adapting the Levels.
One positive and popular part of this was the development of Moor
Associations for local farmers and landowners. In March 2023, the SRA
Board agreed to fund a follow-up to that initiative called Adaptations
& Associations on the Somerset Levels & Moors. In 2023-24, various
activities therefore ensued. For example, climate adaptation toolkits
produced as part of Adapting the Levels were sent to all town and parish
councils in Somerset between April 2023 and June 2023. One especially
enthusiastic recipient was Glastonbury Town Council.
In October 2023, funded by the SRA as part of the Adaptations &
Associations project, Somerset Wildlife Trust and Glastonbury Town
Council began working together on the question: “How can we help
Glastonbury adapt to climate change?” As a first step, a Climate
Adaptation Training event was held in Glastonbury Town Hall. This
brought together the Trust’s climate adaptation team with around 25
residents, community group members and councillors. In the months
that followed, themes and priority areas for action were chosen by
Glastonbury people. They focused upon local needs and desires for:
•
•
•
•

adapting to flooding
planting more trees and plants
installing green roofs and walls
engaging with local planning

A bespoke climate adaptation plan for Glastonbury was published in
August 2024.
Towards the end of March 2024, Somerset Wildlife Trust’s climate
adaptation team also held a training event with members of the Polden
Environment Network. Discussions there centred upon:

43

•
•
•
•

Reducing flooding risks
Improving and increasing green spaces
Sharing knowledge and raising awareness
Local empowerment and community planning

Source page 44

As at Glastonbury, moves to create a bespoke local climate adaptation
plan then stretched beyond March 2024 and the official purview of this
Annual Report.

Moor Associations
Land use on the Somerset Levels and Moors is very fragmented. For
example, on Aller Moor (140 fields, 285 hectares) there are 37 landowners.
For several years now, the SRA has therefore backed the development of
Moor Associations - formal groupings of local farmers and landowners for two main reasons.
Firstly, to help members find new ways of working together for their
mutual benefit, in line with the 20 Year Somerset Flood Action Plan’s
original goal of supporting “better management of the most vulnerable
and challenging parts of the Somerset Levels, with the consent of
owners and occupiers, with the intent of helping them to remain
profitable and build greater resilience to climate and economic change”.
Advantages of working together include greater collective buying
power, more machinery sharing, better grazing arrangements and
improved farmland infrastructure. For example, members have access
to two communal Bos rotary cutter machines purchased as part of the
Adapting the Levels initiative. Used in ditches and along verges, these
machines help to improve drainage.
The second purpose, simply put, is that it is easier for other organisations
to engage with broadly united associations instead of dozens of
individuals. More of what people want can get done quicker. So, for
example, Moor Associations have been able to get funding from the
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) for a Lidar
drone for digitally mapping moors to accuracy levels of two centimetres,
to help predict impacts on land; a representative sits on Defra’s national
Paludiculture Steering Committee, which is looking at ways of producing
food on peat with high water tables; and they are involved with two trials
for growing and harvesting climate change resilient, wet-tolerant crops.
Five Moor Associations started before April 2023: the forerunner in 2018
was the West Moor Futures Group, followed by Tealham and Tadham
Moor, Moorlinch, Curry Moor and Aller Moor (Beer Wall to Aller Drove).
In 2023-24, funded by the SRA, the Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group
SouthWest (FWAG SW) led efforts to establish five more. In early 2024,
four associations got going on Northmoor, Penzoy, Queen’s Sedgemoor,
and Pawlett Hams to West Huntspill: West Sedgemoor had to be
delayed for reasons to do with illnesses until summer 2024.
More generally, FWAG SW began to help with organising Moor
Association Chairs into a single convening body and building a website.
A full mailing list of more than 160 members was compiled, and a first
Moor Associations newsletter was sent out in January 2024.

44

Source page 45

SRA Strategy 2023-24
During 2023-24, Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) partners worked on the
development of an SRA Strategy for 2024-34, ten years having passed
since the floods of 2013-14 that prompted the SRA’s creation. The new
Strategy includes lessons learned from three main sources: from the
SRA’s own history since January 2015, from Somerset flooding over
many years, and more recently from the intensifying impacts of climate
change. With some support from consultants at WSP, members of the
SRA’s Board, Management Group and Technical Group studied
SRA partners’ own plans and strategies, held extensive talks with SRA
partners, and listened to the desires and frustrations expressed by
residents, businesses and stakeholders across Somerset. A temporary
SRA strategy website was created for people to comment upon a
draft version of the Strategy and to share their flood concerns on an
interactive map. Online sessions were also held to give people
chance to express their views frankly and ask questions directly.
What was agreed: the SRA’s core purpose is to “reduce the risks and
impacts of flooding”, its core principles are “acting on local priorities,
working together, doing extra”. What gives SRA works their own
distinctive fingerprint is the combination of the following five themes:
•
•
•
•
•

Working with communities
Strengthening operations, boosting maintenance
Building resilience, encouraging adaptation
Protecting the economy from flooding
Conserving and enhancing the special
environments of Somerset

The Strategy combines purpose, principles and themes in the following
objectives:
1. Reduce the risks and impacts of flooding across Somerset.
2. Maintain access and connections during times of flood for
communities and businesses across Somerset.
3. Increase the resilience of people, places and the environment to
flooding, while adapting to climate change.
4. Protect Somerset’s economy from the impacts of flooding, promote
business confidence and encourage new opportunities.
5. Conserve and enhance Somerset’s special environments (natural, built,
social, cultural) for all who live and work in Somerset and visit.
It was agreed the SRA would take a catchment-based approach
towards fulfilling these objectives, not looking at flooding problems in
isolation, but aiming to connect all relevant factors, places, people and
potential sources of funding. Between 2024 and 2034, the SRA will fund
proposals which reduce the risks and impacts of flooding, and benefit
Somerset people and places in as many ways as possible.

45

Source page 46

Financial Summary 2023-24
Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) gets annual funding from two sources.
Firstly, council tax. In the 2023-24 financial year, £3,010,000 came via
Somerset Council (equating to £14.65 for a Band D household). Secondly,
the Parrett and Axe Brue IDBs each gave £10,000. Local Partner Funds
thus totalled £3,030,000.
In March 2023, the SRA Board moved extra funds out of contingency
and set an overall budget of £4,005,000. This included £2,999,000
for the SRA’s 2023-24 Enhanced Programme of works, £280,000 for
four full-time staff, a part-time Technical Adviser post, administration,
overheads and the development of the SRA Strategy 2024-34; and
£726,000 for contingency. The 2023-24 Enhanced Programme contained
12 new schemes and activities, and four previously deferred, some with
numerous individual elements. All Enhanced Programme works are
designed to advance Somerset’s 20 Year Flood Action Plan.

Spending of Local Partner Funds in 2023-24
Many actions and initiatives are completed within one financial
year. Some require longer-term research, design, planning and
implementation. The tables below show all of the Local Partner Funds
held by the SRA at the beginning of the 2023-24 financial year and the
SRA’s total spending during that year.
2023-24 SPENDING
TOTAL
BY WORKSTREAM

%

Dredging and River Management £2,140,000
Land Management £467,000
Urban Water Management
£64,000
Resilient Infrastructure
£474,000
Building Local Resilience
£390,000

56.25
12.28
1.69
12.46
10.25

SUB TOTAL

£3,535,000

SRA Core Work & Development
SRA Administration & Staffing

£38,000
£231,000

TOTAL

£3,804,000

LOCAL PARTNER FUNDING
2023 - 2024 FINANCIAL
SUMMARY

TOTAL

46

1.0
6.07

ALLOCATED
FUNDS AT START
OF 2023-24
FINANCIAL YEAR

SPENT IN
2023-24

£

£

ALLOCATED
FUNDS
CARRIED
FORWARD
TO 2024
ONWARDS
£

7,657,000

3,804,000

3,853,000

Source page 47

Acknowledgements
Thanks to all Somerset Rivers Authority partners and contractors who
contributed to this report. Text and all images © 2024 by Somerset Rivers
Authority and its constituent members and delivery partners: except for
photos used courtesy of the National Trust - aerial (p.19) by View It 360,
beaver (front cover, p.29) by Nick Upton, timber (front cover, middle p.19)
and grey wagtail (p.19) both by Barry Edwards.
www.somersetriversauthority.org.uk
www.x.com/SRAnews
www.facebook.com/SomersetRiversAuthority
www.instagram.com/somersetriversauthority

Source page 48

Somerset
Rivers Authority

SRA Strategy
2024 - 2034
We reduce the risks and impacts of
flooding across Somerset

Somerset Rivers Authority

4/32

County Hall, Taunton, TA1 4DY
TEL: 01823 355111
sra@somerset.go.uk