Somerset urged to prioritise maintenance for £50m government flooding grant
The funding is currently being held by Somerset Council ahead of the final list of projects being confirmed
Last updated 17th Sep 2026
Somerset must prioritise spending £50m on essential maintenance to prevent future flooding across the county, according to a senior local figure.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced in June that £50m will be provided to strengthen Somerset’s flood defences and help homes, farms and businesses cope better with extreme wet weather.
The funding (provided in the aftermath of Storm Chandra) is currently being held by Somerset Council ahead of the final list of projects being confirmed, with all the funding having to be committed and spent by October 2028.
But Tony Bradford, vice-chairman of the Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) has cautioned that the bulk of this funding should be spent on maintenance to avoid Somerset being “in the same boat” in the coming years.
Mr Bradford, who also sits on the Parrett Internal Drainage Board, made his plea when the SRA board met in Taunton on Friday morning (September 11).
He said: “We’ve got £50m to put some things in order – some of it will do a lot of good, some of it will do a medium amount of good. But what we’ve got to focus on now is how we’re going to maintain all this.
“It all comes down to one thing: the lack of investment and lack of maintenance in our infrastructure.
“We’ve got to start thinking now about how we maintain this, because if we just put it right and then walk away for another 30 years, like we’ve done before, we’ll be back in the same boat.
“We may think £50m is going to solve the problem in the short-term, but flooding is a long-term issue. We cannot fail.”
The council has set up a programme advisory group (which includes SRA member) who will help to develop the programme before its executive committee grants final approval.
A report to the council’s climate, environment and place scrutiny committee on September 3 identified that a range of solutions would be explored – from large-scale capital works (such as the Taunton town centre flood alleviation schemes) to river maintenance and smaller-scale, nature-based projects.
The programme will officially begin on October 1 and has been “over-programmed” with around £80m of schemes – ensuing that the money can always be spent within the two-year timescale if individual projects fall through or cannot be taken forward.
Piers Hooper, the council’s flood resilience programme strategic manager, said in his written report to the SRA board: “The activities proposed are diverse, including major capital construction works, natural flood management, de-silting, maintenance, and flood warning and preparedness.
“Projects are spread across Somerset and will build upon work done in the first Somerset flood action plan (drawn up in 2014) and since this time.
“A major element of the programme will be the council’s ‘my community’ programme, which will provide fast, bespoke solutions to villages and towns across the county, regardless of which authority is responsible.
“The programme aims to empower local communities to cut through bureaucracy and get the support that matters to them.
“The programme represents a unique opportunity to reduce flood risk and increase resilience and adaptation while delivering environmental benefits, against the backdrop of a changing climate and reduced public delivery sector capacity.”