Somerset Rivers Authority spent over £3 million Council Tax

Established in the aftermath of the floods that hit the county in 2023-14, the SRA’s core purpose is to reduce the risks and impacts of flooding. In 2023-24, the SRA spent £3,804,000, including £467,000 on Land Management and £390,000 on Building Local Resilience. The SRA’s Council Tax charge has not increased since 2016, when it was introduced.

The SRA’s Annual Report, which is available to read online, documents the activities funded between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.

In the foreword of the Report, SRA Chair Cllr Mike Stanton, said: “2023-24 showed climate change intensifying flooding problems across our country, lashing with more force and unpredictability.”

Cllr Stanton also raised the challenge of funding: “For 2023-24, the SRA got just over £3 million 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.”

Main SRA projects funded by over £3 million Council Tax:

Dredging activities

In 2023-24, the SRA spent more on dredging and river management than on all its other workstreams put together, costing in total 56.25% of all funding, or £2,140,000. These activities saw a new combination of dredging methods trialled along parts of the River Parrett between Burrowbridge and the M5 bridge, and along the River Sowy and King’s Sedgemoor Drain system.

Bridgwater Tidal Barrier

The SRA has contributed to the proposed Bridgwater Tidal Barrier, which will straddle the River Parrett between Express Park and Chilton Trinity. It will reduce flood risks to more than 11,300 homes and 1,500 businesses. The project also includes over 2.5 miles of new flood defence banks and 1.74 miles of raised banks downstream at Chilton Trinity, Combwich and Pawlett.

Tonedale Mills, Wellington

In March 2023, the SRA agreed to fund a study of how the derelict Tone Works and Tonedale Mill complex, land nearby and its wider catchments, could be used to reduce flood risks upstream, around Wellington, and downstream towards Taunton.

Taunton Strategic Flood Alleviation Improvements Scheme (TSFAIS)

The purpose of this scheme is to reduce flood risks to 1,031 properties arising from the River Tone and its complex network of tributaries. During 2023-24, three initial TSFAIS projects were led by Somerset Council and the Environment Agency, including improvements along 750 metres of the River Tone; raising Firepool Lock gates; and implementing Longrun Meadow flood attenuation ponds.  

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. The project was the first in the UK to attempt to reset a main river on such an ambitious scale.

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. The flow station now measures how much water is going down the Parrett from a catchment of 478 square miles towards the Somerset Levels and Moors.

Land Management

Ten land management and Natural Flood Management schemes were completed across Somerset by the SRA during 2023-24, including at Pudleigh Mill, near Chard; Hill Farm, Barrington; Hills Farm, Fitzhead; Raleigh Manor, Wheddon Cross; Chargot estate, Luxborough; Carslake Farm, Stogumber; Witham Park Farm near Frome; and Orchard Close, Carhampton.

Community Sub Catchment Support

The SRA initiated pilot project to help Somerset groups and communities turn ideas into action. Funding was agreed by the SRA Board after hearing 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. Areas included Chaffcombe, Bathpool, Ilminster, Podimore, and Milverton.

Trees for Water Action Fund

Trees for Water is an SRA-backed Fund for tree and hedge planting that reduces local flood risks arising from surface water run-off. 31 schemes went ahead in 2023-24. In total, they planted 3,112 trees, 3,022 shrubs, and 1,136 metres of hedgerow.

Somerset Beaver Strategy

A first draft of a Somerset Beaver Strategy was produced towards the end of 2023, with nearly 150 pages of technical details. 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.

Somerset Levels and Moors peat trials

Two landowners are taking part in an SRA part-funded trial scheme of payments for the preservation and restoration of peat. 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.

Chard Urban Run-off Butts

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. A second phase of the scheme, learning lessons from the first and targeting other suitable areas of Chard, began in August 2024.

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. 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. Nine solutions were recommended to tackle flooding.