'Really chuffed' at work to boost flood defences

ESSENTIAL improvements to one of Somerset's key flood defences can continue over the summer after near ly £1m of funding was signed off.

- DANIEL MUMBY Local democracy journalist

The Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) has been working with the Environment Agency (EA) to make numerous improvements to the River Sowy and King’s Sedgemoor Drain (KSD), which divert water from the River Parrett and the River Cary out into the Bristol Channel.

Numerous improvements have been carried out over the last two years, removing silt from the river banks and bridges to increase capac ity and thereby ensuring water can flow off the moors more quickly.

The SRA board has been working since January to allow three out standing elements of the current improvement programme (dubbed ‘phase one’) to both be completed before the end of the current calen dar year.

With two of these elements now either completed or underway, the board voted in Bridgwater on Friday, June 6, to provide £915,000 to complete bank raising work, which should be completed before the end of the summer.