Vital work shores up the gate that protects us from threat of flooding

A VITAL flood defence gate has been given a multi-million-pound make-over, as Dunball Sluice is reengineered to stand strong for another quarter of a century - keeping the Somerset Levels and Moors high and dry.

- LEWIS CLARKE

The Environment Agency has completed a £9.7 million refurbishment of the Dunball Sluice, a crucial tidal defence asset near Bridgwater that helps protect homes, businesses and internationally important freshwater habitats across the region.

Work began in 2022 and was delivered in partnership with the Somerset Rivers Authority and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), with the latter providing the majority of the funding and the SRA contributing £650,000.

Originally built in 1971, the sluice sits at the point where the tidal River Parrett meets the King’s Sedgemoor Drain (KSD) - a 13.5-mile-long channel also known as the River Sowy or the Parrett Flood Relief Channel. This system was developed alongside the sluice in the early 1970s to carry water from the Parrett downstream of Langport into the Sowy and KSD, before it rejoins the Parrett via the sluice.