SRA launches Somerset Flood Awareness Month

30th September 2026
SRA

This October 2026 is the first Somerset Flood Awareness Month.

Led by Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA), this partnership initiative is intended to help people understand their flood risks, know where to find reliable information and take simple steps to keep themselves and their homes, businesses and communities safer.

This year’s primary aim is to incubate a programme that can be repeated and expanded in future.

Fourteen libraries are hosting displays, posters, flood-themed book collections and various forms of practical information that can be taken home. Namely, Chard, Crewkerne, Ilminster, Wincanton, Taunton, Priorswood, North Petherton, Bridgwater, Burnham-on-Sea, Nether Stowey, Minehead, Williton, Porlock, and Frome.

Special sessions in libraries, mostly with members of the SRA’s community team, will include advice drop-ins in Frome, Wincanton, and Taunton; flood-themed children’s activities in Taunton, Porlock, Priorswood and Chard; and Lego Flood Challenge meetings in Taunton.

The Lego Flood Challenge is centred on library Lego clubs but open to all Somerset residents.

There are four categories to enter:

Age 7 and under
Age 8–11
Age 12–16
and under 16 group build

and a prize for each category of a £50 LEGO gift card. Entries must be in by 30 November 2026.

Participants are invited to imagine and build a home that could withstand a future flood. It might be raised on stilts, use plants and nature to help, be fitted with watertight doors, or packed with gadgets to keep water out. Many homes across Somerset are at risk of flooding: great design could help the county be better prepared for future emergencies.

Other activities include the Environment Agency’s Flood Awareness Week, the annual Somerset Prepared Community Resilience Day on 21 October at Millfield School in Street, and a re-hang in Taunton Library from 26 October of the recent SRA-sponsored children’s art exhibition Seeing Through the Rain.

Somerset Flood Awareness Month also coincides with the official start of the two-year period for spending the £50million the government gave Somerset Council for extra flood works.

For more details on events and challenges, see: https://www.somersetriversauthority.org.uk/events/