SRA Annual Report 2023-24: Chard Urban Run-off Butts
One reason why Chard has flooded badly in recent years is that too much surface water runs over land and overwhelms Chard’s combined sewers. Combined sewers take rainwater that runs off from gutters, drains and roads, as well as wastewater from homes and businesses.
In autumn 2023, to try to reduce the amount of water that runs off from domestic gutters into Chard’s drainage networks, 460 local households were offered free water butts. The offer was made by Wessex Water, working together with Somerset Council, Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA), Chard Town Council and Chard Area Resilience Group (CARG).
Letters were targeted at parts of Chard (Furnham, Crimchard, Combe Street and Fore Street), where the installation and effective use of water butts would help most to reduce flooding. As a result, 74 water butts were ordered from and delivered by Wessex Water.
In door-to-door visits made by the SRA’s community engagement officers and Wessex Water representatives, people who did not order a butt said they already had one or more, or did not have the necessary space. A second phase of the scheme, learning lessons from the first and targeting other suitable areas of Chard, began in August 2024.