SRA Annual Report 2020-21: Summary and Introduction to Dredging and River Management

2020-21 Summary

Work has included:

• pioneer dredging along the River Parrett from a point 750 metres past Northmoor Pumping Station down to the M5 bridge
• the development of detailed designs for enhancing the River Sowy and King’s Sedgemoor Drain in 2021, including a successful public consultation about this scheme, and the refurbishment of around 100 water control features at Egypt’s Clyse, Moorlinch and Westmoor
• financial support for the Bridgwater Tidal Barrier, Taunton improvements, a flood protection scheme for homes in Highbridge, and repairs and improvements at North Drain Pumping Station
• plus the development of detailed designs for a flow station on the River Parrett in Langport, to be built in summer 2021

The map below shows a selection.

Somerset Rivers Authority spends more on Dredging and River Management than it does on any other workstream. Schemes are designed and delivered for the SRA by a range of partners and contractors. Money comes from either council tax or the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership’s Growth Deal Fund – or sometimes both.

The three main strands are:

• major SRA projects
• major projects led by other bodies and backed by the SRA
• smaller projects

Many projects are complex and take more than a year to deliver. It is often said that if some matters were simple, they would already have been dealt with by someone else! But working together, SRA partners get results through innovation, sophistication and good old-fashioned determination.