Agenda for Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) Board meeting on 12 September 2025
A meeting of the Board of Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) was held at 9.45am on Friday 12 September 2025 at the offices of Taunton Town Council, in the Tone Room, Deane House, Belvedere Road, Taunton, TA1 1HE.
Read a summary of decisions taken at the SRA Board meeting on Friday 12 September.
Below are lists of people attended the meeting from across the SRA partnership, followed by the meeting’s agenda and reports.
Members of SRA Board:
Cllr Mike Stanton – Chair (Somerset Council)
Tony Bradford – Vice-Chair (Parrett Internal Drainage Board)
Cllr Steve Ashton (Somerset Council)
Ian Collins (Wessex Regional Flood & Coastal Committee)
Vicky Farwig (Wessex Water – substitute)
Andrew Gilling (Axe Brue Internal Drainage Board)
Rebecca Horsington (Parrett Internal Drainage Board)
Cllr Liz Leyshon (Somerset Council – substitute)
Claire Newill (Natural England)
Cllr Nick O’Donnell (Somerset Council)
Trevor Whitcombe (Axe Brue Internal Drainage Board)
Ian Withers (Environment Agency)
Cllr Ros Wyke (Somerset Council)
In attendance:
Bel Deering (Somerset Rivers Authority)
Ross Edwards (Environment Agency)
Paul Elliston (Somerset Rivers Authority)
Adrian Govier (Environment Agency)
Sam Hitchcott (Somerset Council)
Piers Hooper (Environment Agency)
David Mitchell (Somerset Rivers Authority)
Iain Sturdy (Somerset Drainage Boards Consortium)
Andy Wallis (A W Water Engineering)
Apologies:
Cllr Mike Caswell (Somerset Council)
Cllr Claire Sully (Somerset Council)
Matt Wheeldon (Wessex Water)
James Divall (Somerset Council)
Caroline Dunn (Somerset Rivers Authority)
Jonathan Hudston (Somerset Rivers Authority)
AGENDA
1 Apologies for Absence
Purpose: Welcome and clarification
Lead: Chair
2 Declarations of interest
Purpose: Transparency
Lead: Chair
3 Minutes of previous meeting held on 6 June 2025
Purpose: To agree accuracy, and discuss any matters arising from the minutes
Lead: Chair
Document (downloadable PDF): ITEM 3 Draft minutes of SRA Board meeting on 6 June 2025
4 Chair’s update
Purpose: To update on any matters of relevance to the SRA Board since its last meeting: Consider a resolution requesting a pause of planned changes to maintenance on Somerset rivers
Lead: Chair
Document (downloadable PDF): ITEM 4a SRA Board Paper Main River Maintenance Withdrawal 12 September 2025
5 Public Question Time
Purpose: To give the public chance to ask questions
Lead: Chair
6 Finance report and Enhanced Programme performance monitoring
Purpose: To update the Board
a) Quarter 1 2025-26 Finance Report
b) Quarter 1 2025-26 Enhanced Programme performance monitoring
Leads: Sam Hitchcott, David Mitchell
Documents (downloadable PDFs): ITEM 6a SRA Board Paper Quarter 1 2025-26 Finance Report 12 September 2025
ITEM 6a SRA Board Paper Quarter 1 2025-26 Finance Report 12 September 2025
ITEM 6b SRA Board Paper Quarter 1 2025-26 Performance Monitoring Report 12 September 2025
7 Community Flood Action Fund Update
Purpose: a. Outcome of second round of CFAF applications
b. CFAF top-up funding request
Lead: David Mitchell
Document (downloadable PDF): ITEM 7 SRA Board Paper Community Flood Action Fund 12 September 2025
8 River Brue Modelling update
Purpose: Report and presentation on modelling outputs and next steps
Leads: Andy Wallis, David Mitchell
Documents (downloadable PDF): ITEM 8 SRA Board Paper River Brue 12 September 2025
River Brue Modelling Presentation
9 River Sowy – King’s Sedgemoor Drain (KSD) Enhancements Scheme
Purpose: KSD bank raising progress update, plus a presentation about improvements in the River Sowy-KSD system since 2014
Leads: Iain Sturdy, David Mitchell, Adrian Govier
Document (downloadable PDF): ITEM 9 SRA Board Paper KSD Outfalls and Banks Update 12 September 2025
10 SRA partnership team
Purpose: Request to convert SRA Community Engagement roles from fixed term to permanent contracts
Lead: David Mitchell
Document (downloadable PDF): ITEM 10 SRA Board Paper Community Engagement Roles to Permanent 12 September 2025
11 Top-up funding request
Purpose: To request top-up funding for 2025-26 Water Injection dredging
Lead: Iain Sturdy
Document (downloadable PDF): ITEM 11 SRA Board Paper Top Up Funding Water Injection Dredging 12 September 2025
11 Any Other Business (AOB)
Purpose: Please notify the Chair of AOB in advance of the meeting
Lead: Chair
Board meeting information
For more information relating to this Friday 12 September SRA Board meeting, such as public attendance and access, please see the Public Guidance notes below:
Document (downloadable PDF): SRA Board Meeting Agenda and Public Guidance Notes 12 September 2025
Next SRA Board meeting: 5 December 2025, starting time and venue to be confirmed.