2017-18 END OF YEAR REPORT: NO-PHOTOS VERSION CONTENTS PART 1: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 Executive Summary PART 2: PERFORMANCE 3 Delivery 4 Finance PART 3: PROGRESS OF WORKS IN DETAIL 3a: Key Projects 7 Main River Dredging 10 Sowy / King’s Sedgemoor Drain enhancements 11 Bridgwater Tidal Barrier 12 Taunton Strategic Flood Alleviation Improvements Scheme 3b: SRA Enhanced Programmes 12 Dredging & River Management 16 Land Management 19 Urban Water Management 21 Resilient Infrastructure 25 Building Local Resilience PART 4: PROGRESS ON KEY ELEMENTS OF SOMERSET’S FLOOD ACTION PLAN 27 Targets and what we have achieved Somerset Rivers Authority is a partnership between 11 of Somerset’s existing Flood Risk Management Authorities (FRMAs): Somerset County Council, West Somerset Council, Taunton Deane Borough Council, Sedgemoor District Council (DC), South Somerset DC, Mendip DC, the Axe Brue and Parrett Internal Drainage Boards, the Environment Agency, Natural England and Wessex Regional Flood & Coastal Committee. The SRA’s purpose is to provide a higher standard of flood risk management than is affordable from the existing budgets of those FRMAs. This 29-page version of the SRA End of Year Report 2017-18 has been published without photos, to allow for quicker, cheaper printing. A 40-page version with photos can be downloaded from the SRA Website: www.somersetriversauthority.org.uk Or call the SRA on 01823-355111 or email [email protected] 1 PART 1: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This End of Year Report covers everything done, still being done, or not done by Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) between the start of April 2017 and the end of March 2018. More detail is given than is customary in reports such as this because the SRA would like you to know how much is being achieved with your money across the county. In 2017-18, the SRA spent just over £3.6million on actions designed to give Somerset extra flood protection and resilience. Partners delivering work for the SRA also committed to spend a further £1.8m, so when all of the final invoices have been submitted and paid, the total spent on works on the ground across Somerset in 2017-18 will have been more than £5m. SRA money comes from a range of sources. For 2017-18, the SRA got funding of £2.843m through council tax and contributions from Somerset’s Internal Drainage Boards. In addition, £3.104m was brought forward from previous years, for spending on actions still in progress. At the start of April 2017, the SRA had 56 actions on the go, including 23 newly approved by the SRA Board in March. Sixteen actions were completed (which means done and fully paid for) during 2017-18. Altogether, since the SRA’s launch in 2015, 60 actions out of 100 have been completed. Some actions take more than one calendar year to deliver; others are delayed for various reasons, such as odd discoveries (eg, Dunster asbestos, a Stoke sub Hamdon blockage). The SRA backs several key projects, using Growth Deal funding from the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership (HotSWLEP). In 2014, Somerset was awarded £13.049m by HotSWLEP to pay for work on major, long-term schemes up to 2021. In 2017-18, £1.083m was spent, out of a total so far of £6.507m. Five schemes were supported: Bridgwater Tidal Barrier, Sowy / King’s Sedgemoor Drain (KSD) enhancements, Natural Flood Management (Hills to Levels), the Taunton Strategic Flood Alleviation Improvements Scheme and dredging activities. All schemes are progressing, at different rates but with the same determination to reduce flooding. A Bridgwater Barrier would reduce tidal flood threats from the River Parrett to assets worth about £2.5 billion. The aim is for a Barrier to be working in 2024, to then protect nearly 13,000 homes and businesses for more than 100 years. A full programme of Sowy / KSD enhancements continues to be challenging and costly, so revised plans are being drawn up for increasing the system’s capacity to carry water. An important new feature of 2017-18 is the development of a Strategic Approach to Mitigation. This work is being led for the SRA by Natural England. Its main aims are to reduce costs and risks, to help schemes such as the Barrier, Sowy/KSD and further dedging to go ahead, and to secure a wide range of environmental benefits. SRA actions are grouped in five workstreams: Dredging & River Management (W1), Land Management (W2), Urban Water Management (W3), Resilient Infrastructure (W4) and Building Community Resilience (W5). W1 currently gets the largest share of SRA spending, for activities such as the innovative use of quicker, cheaper water injection dredging techniques along 5km of the Parrett down from Burrowbridge. Other successes include two national awards for the Hills To Levels partnership (W2), initiatives on Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (W3), A38 and A372 improvements plus extra maintenance and investigations (W4), and grants and training (W5). Everything the SRA does is rooted in Somerset’s 20 Year Flood Action Plan, drawn up during the devastating floods of 2013-14. The SRA itself emerged from this Plan, and now oversees it. The Government has drafted a Rivers Authorities & Land Drainage Bill which - with Government support - is being taken forward as a Private Member’s Bill by the Somerton and Frome MP David Warburton. The aim is to establish the SRA as an independent legal entity that can raise funds for itself from council tax and is thereby enabled to make longer-term plans for the delivery of the extra flood risk management works that history has starkly shown Somerset needs. 2 PART 2: PERFORMANCE AND FINANCE - Delivery Progress Summary Delivery: Summary 2017-18 saw the SRA delivering its third annual Enhanced Programme of works. Twenty-three actions were approved by the SRA Board for delivery across Somerset. The total 2017-18 funding from SRA Local Partners (council tax and contributions from Somerset’s IDBs) was £2.843million. After provisions were made for contingency (£95k), four staff and overheads (£200k), and £150k was put aside for Sowy/King’s Sedgemoor Drain enhancements and/or pioneer dredging, the amount available for the 2017-18 Enhanced Programme was £2.398m. 2017-18 also saw the SRA and its partners continuing to work on actions that began life in earlier years. Some of these were always expected to take more than one calendar year to deliver; others were delayed for a variety of reasons, such as environmental considerations, issues with land ownership, or sheer complexity. An SRA action is a work or collection of associated works that gives Somerset extra flood protection or resilience, and advances Somerset’s 20 Year Flood Action Plan. Maintenance dredging of the Parrett is one action: so is the jetting of a few dozen drains. An action is recorded as completed when all costs have been fully claimed by the SRA’s delivery partners. This can be several months after works on the ground have finished. By the end of March 2017, 44 SRA-funded actions had been completed. At the start of the 2017-18 financial year (in April 2017), the SRA had 56 actions on the go, including the 23 newly-approved by the SRA Board in March 2017. Table A (below) shows that 16 actions were recorded as completed during 2017-18, leaving 40 still in progress. Table A: Action Status Table Actions in the 2017-18 Actions from DCLG* Funded Enhanced Programme - previous years’ actions Local Partners Funding Enhanced Status of Actions Programmes - Local Partners and 2015- 16 Interim Funding Actions completed by end of March 2017 N/A 40 4 Actions programmed for 2017-18 23 27 6 Actions completed during 2017-18 4 12 0 Actions in progress 19 15 6 * 2014-15 Funding from the Department of Communities & Local Government (DCLG), as it was then called. This is money given to support Somerset’s 20 Year Flood Action Plan, before the SRA was formally launched, then inherited by the SRA. Table A excludes key projects funded using Growth Deal money from the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership (HotSWLEP). More information about these projects can be found on page 5 and in Part 3a of this report. Part 3b gives detailed information about what has been achieved, and what is being achieved, on all actions in the SRA’s 2017-18 Enhanced Programme and on all actions carried forward from previous years. 3 Delivery: Financial Spend by Workstream The pie-chart below shows SRA money spent during 2017-18, by Workstream. The figures show funding from all sources, namely SRA Local Partners (council tax and contributions from Somerset’s Internal Drainage Boards), the Heart of the SW Local Enterprise Partnership (HotSWLEP) Growth Deal Fund, Interim Funding from 2015-16 and DCLG funding from 2014. All SRA-funded actions are part of the SRA’s five main Workstreams, delivered for the SRA by its delivery partners (local councils, Environment Agency, IDBs, Natural England, FWAG SW). • W1 - Dredging and River Management • W2 - Land Management including natural flood management activities • W3 - Urban Water Management including Sustainable Urban Drainage Schemes (SuDS), planning and enforcement • W4 - Resilient Infrastructure including improvements and extra works to stop roads flooding • W5 - Building Local Resilience, giving inspiration, support, advice, information and practical help to communities, households, businesses, and landowners across Somerset to encourage and enable them to become more resilient and resistant to the impacts of flooding Amount Spent* by SRA in 2017-18 by Workstream (£’000)** Most SRA spending during 2017-18 was in W1, Dredging and River Management. £476k was spent on maintaining dredged profiles, silt monitoring, and de-silting with a further £162k spent on the Environment Agency’s Wessex De-silt Top Up.