Grants

The Fund is open to not-for-profit organisations.

We (the SRA) will accept applications from town or parish councils, parish meetings, registered charities, Community Interest Companies, social enterprises and community benefit societies. There are conditions that need to be met. If you are a community group or local flood group, to apply, we would encourage you to work with your local parish or town council. See the Community Flood Action Fund Guidelines for more examples of who can apply.

The smallest grant will be £3,000, the biggest £20,000. The £20,000 limit includes any match funding you might get from elsewhere.

You can apply at any time, but there are four quarterly deadlines for different rounds during the year:

• 25 February 2025
• 27 May 2025
• 26 August 2025
• 25 November 2025

If you miss the deadline for one round, your application will be considered in the next round.

Initially, we will review your application and get back to you if we have any questions. This could take up to four weeks.

Applications will then be considered by a Review Panel. The Review Panel will meet about four to six weeks after each quarterly deadline.

We will let you know if your application was successful or unsuccessful between six to eight weeks after each deadline date.

The SRA Community Flood Action Fund supports projects which reduce the risk and impact of flooding in Somerset. Works must accord with the first of the SRA’s five objectives, ideally more.

Schemes and activities must take place in Somerset, in the area covered by Somerset Council, or in very exceptional circumstances close to the Somerset border.

Permits and surveys may get funding, if getting permits and / or doing surveys is going to be essential for works to happen, and if works do then happen. Funding will not be given just for permit and survey costs alone.

Works must be started within three months of a grant being awarded and completed within nine months.

Works might include maintaining flood defence features, making improvements to flood defence features, or creating flood defence features. See the Community Flood Action Fund Guidelines for more examples.

Rules 1 to 3 reflect SRA policies, 4 and 5 are designed to keep the Fund’s focus on small-scale local action.

The SRA Community Flood Action Fund will not generally fund:

• Works for protection from coastal flooding, with the coast as defined by The Coastal Protection Act 1949
• Emergency response and recovery actions, which are the responsibility of the agencies best placed to respond to such emergencies
• Schemes or activities that benefit only a single household, landowner or business
• Works costing over £20,000.
• Feasibility studies or investigation reports

You can find further information in the Community Flood Action Fund Guidelines.

If you are still unsure, please email: sra@somerset.gov.uk

Mark emails: CFAF QUESTION

Or call: 01823 355111.

General advice, but not technical advice, no. Why? Because Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) is a partnership of the Environment Agency, Natural England, Parrett and Axe Brue Internal Drainage Boards, Somerset Council, Wessex Water and the Wessex Regional Flood and Coastal Committee. These organisations commit their staff and technical expertise to deliver projects using SRA funding.

The core SRA team that supports the partnership does not replicate the roles and expertise of the partner organisations therefore we cannot provide technical advice to support your Community Flood Action Fund (CFAF) bid. We can provide general advice about completing an application but not about the specifics of what you propose to do.

We encourage you to seek out as much information as you can about the flooding issue when preparing an application.

What information can you access that evidences the flood risk in the area?

Have you investigated websites of the SRA partner organisations for reports, studies and strategies for useful information?

Have ideas for addressing the problem already been suggested by others?

Have you spoken to residents, farmers, landowners to learn what they know?

What anecdotal evidence can you provide to support your application?

Is there anyone locally that can offer advice about cost of work e.g. local contractor or farmers?

Consider the implications of what you propose to do on communities upstream or downstream – your project cannot increase flood risk to another area.

Have you checked what permits and permissions might be required and how easy or difficult getting these might be?

Consider whether, if you feel you need to pay for expert advice to complete an application, the issue is too complex for the Community Flood Action Fund.

CFAF is to help local people help themselves by taking low-risk actions that make a difference.

No. We will not repeat-fund the same activity.

No. The SRA may pay for an initial round of maintenance, to get things back up to a higher standard, but you will need to find other ways of paying for ongoing activities beyond that.

You can only make one application per quarterly round. However, that one application could include several different proposals for improvement projects (maintenance and / or capital works), provided they do not exceed a total cost of £20,000.

No, that will be seen as one project costing over £20,000.

The Fund can offer grants where licences / permissions are not yet in place.

However, we expect you to have had conversations with the relevant experts / authorities and be confident that permits / licences / permissions can be secured and your project delivered within the required timescale.

We will expect work to begin within three months of a grant being awarded.

Ideally, we expect projects to be completed within nine months of a grant being awarded.

We do understand that some projects will experience difficulties and delays.

You will need to keep us updated on any delays or changes to the project delivery.

You will need to send:

• A completed application form
• Landowner’s permission if you are not the owner
• Any maps showing your project’s location and the area which will be impacted
• Any photos of previous flooding
• Project cost budget breakdown form
• Equalities Impact Assessment

Payments are released by BACS in arrears following receipt of a claim form.

Claims will need to align with your budget breakdown.

You will need to provide evidence of expenditure to support your claim.

You will be asked to complete a Project Completion Form and send us photographs of the completed works.

In some cases, we may request an interim update.

Contact us and we will see what we can do to help. Email: sra@somerset.gov.uk

Or call: 01823 355111