THE AUTHORITY tasked with coordinating flood prevention efforts in Somerset has published details of where it intends to dedicate funding over the next 12 months.

The Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) was set up in 2015 in response to the disastrous flooding of 2013/14, and is funded by a shadow precept from Somerset’s six (soon to be five) local authorities.

Its latest programme of work, ranging from large-scale dredging to small-scale community studies, was agreed by the SRA board in Yeovil on March 1.

This comes as a bill to make the SRA a precepting body in its own right cleared the latest hurdle in its long journey through the House of Commons.

The SRA will be spending around £2.9M on projects designed to provide additional protection from flooding across the county.

More than half of this – around £1.7M will be dedicated to dredging and river management schemes, to increase the capacity within the Levels and Moors.

A further £589,000 will go towards making existing infrastructure more resilient, and £87,000 will be allocated to projects designed to prevent or reduce flooding in urban areas.

As part of the new programme, a number of localised studies will be carried out to see how flood prevention can be improved for certain vulnerable communities.

These include assessments of the B3135 near Cheddar Gorge, the A38 at Blackbird Bends near Wellington, and of sustainable urban drainage systems across the Yeovil area.

In Chard and Barrington, new silt traps will be created to protect up to 85 properties, and a new attenuation pond will be built in the grounds of Preston Academy in Yeovil.

In Sampford Brett near Williton, a major culvert running under the A358 will be enhanced, and a series of culvert throughout the Mendip district will be inspected to see where improvements can be made.

SRA chairman John Osman said: “Every single element of our programme of works for 2019/20 has been designed to give the people of Somerset greater flood protection and resilience.

“Various kinds of works have been approved because different parts of the county have different needs, and the SRA allows local people to set their own priorities.

“In practice, that means some activities are focused on the big need for extra maintenance of watercourses, and of thousands of structures such as culverts and silt-traps and drains and gullies. Beyond that, there’s improvements, innovations, and investigations, and numerous collaborations in towns and in the countryside.

“In the longer term, we’re helping to fund a major project that will help local people decide how they want to adapt to the effects of climate change on flooding problems in Somerset.”

The SRA is currently funded by a shadow precept, taken from Somerset’s existing six (soon to be five) local authorities.

Somerton and Frome MP David Warburton is trying to introduce a new law which would allow the authority to become a precepting body in its own right, which would enable it to plan further into the future.

Mr Warburton’s Rivers Authorities and Land Drainage Bill was scrutinised at committee stage on Monday afternoon (March 11), having cleared its second reading on February 8.

Taunton Deane MP Rebecca Pow said: “The bill ensures money and financing so we can tackle flood risk reduction work properly and get an environmental gain from it.

“That will now be on a much firmer footing, and we can guarantee that it will not stop.”

The bill is scheduled to receive its third reading in the House of Commons on Friday (March 15).