Foreword by SRA Manager David Mitchell to SRA Annual Report 2025-26
Somerset Rivers Authority exists to help people.
I never lose sight of that fact.
Read about all the many schemes and activities that we funded in 2025-26, and I hope that you too will get a sense of how dealing with the risks and impacts of flooding is, basically, about looking after each other. Our families, friends, neighbours, colleagues, all the varied environments that make Somerset a special place to live: we want them to be safer and better protected.
So for me, writing as the Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) manager, seeing what is achieved on the ground is extremely satisfying because I know how much effort my team and colleagues from across the partnership put in to make things happen.
I particularly enjoyed spending time with members of the SRA Board as they rode on the Borr Water Injection Dredging vessel, saw bank raising works on King’s Sedgemoor Drain (KSD) and experienced the passion and dedication of the local flood wardens when they visited Croscombe. One of my most rewarding days this last year was spent with Graeme Watt in Stoke St Mary: he amazed me with just how much had been achieved with a modest amount of money from the SRA’s new Community Flood Action Fund.
On the Somerset Levels and Moors, thanks to the SRA, residents have benefitted from works to keep more water in rivers, ditches and rhynes for longer. Dredging, the River Sowy – KSD Enhancements Scheme, and extra main river maintenance, have together reduced flood risks for hundreds of homes and businesses and thousands of hectares of agricultural land. Our investment in improved land management and natural flood management (NFM) – 21 NFM schemes completed and almost 3,000 trees and shrubs planted – helps to slow the flow of water to lower catchments.
It also produces cost-effective flood risk reduction results for dozens of local properties, and it can help to improve water quality, soil health and habitats for wildlife. It complements other SRA schemes and activities by reducing the amount of water sheeting off fields, onto roads and towards properties.
We cannot stop all flooding but we can prepare for it and take steps to bounce back quicker when it happens. The SRA supports an extensive programme of working with communities. Passionate, committed staff in several organisations work with people at risk of flooding, to give them the tools they need to take action.
Through the SRA, in 2025-26, around 5,000 people were engaged with and offered support. More flood groups are developing and implementing flood plans and adaptation plans; these groups are forming networks to help each other. We are working in schools to help young people be flood-aware and be future agents of change. We are creating localised flood warning systems to help communities better understand, monitor and respond to their flood risks. This has resulted in some fantastic examples of communities taking what we have provided and adding to it to make it truly local and bespoke.
As we look ahead, the SRA partnership will continue to meet our objectives by working with communities and focusing on local priorities for practical action that will address the risk of flooding.
There will always be more to do!
David Mitchell