SRA Annual Report 2020-21: Introduction to Building Local Resilience section
2020-21 Summary
- Somerset Community Resilience events held online with videos and free training sessions
- Adapting the Levels’ report Adapting to Climate Change on the Somerset Levels showcased local people’s ideas
- Adapting the Levels worked on a mobile app called Somerset Trails and a web-based app for exploring Adaptation Pathways
- new Moor Association formed on Moorlinch, many improvements made to Moorlinch droves
- wetland biomass case study completed
Introduction
Coronavirus pandemic restrictions made it difficult for Somerset Rivers Authority’s community engagement team to get out as they normally would and work with people on local projects. Both the SRA’s Community Engagement Officer (Emma Giffard) and Community Engagement Support Officer (Dawn James) therefore spent some time redeployed. Dawn James looked after Covid-19 patients in a Somerset County Council pop-up care home in Yeovil. Emma Giffard helped Somerset Waste Partnership re-open Highbridge Recycling Centre, and also temporarily joined Somerset’s contact tracing team. Both were funded by Somerset County Council while redeployed, and not the SRA, as the SRA’s share of council tax is ringfenced for the SRA.
However, while many plans for the year had to be changed, determined efforts were still made to build local resilience.