Leadership & Partnership

With a large number of responses, this appears to be high on many people’s agendas and is seen as key to making progress in climate change adaptation.

The comments reflected a great desire for leadership from national, regional and local government, supported by local actions. Some of these comments were general and high level, such as the call for:

“Leadership from central Government coupled with local action.”

There was also a sense of frustration about how the issue has been tackled before now:

“At last! Someone is doing something to bring this climate change issue outside of politicians.” 

At the councillor workshops, participants were invited to explore potential blocks to action. Issues included the difficulty of joining up the local with higher levels of Government, problems with complex legislation and a lack of faith in Government action:

"Government don’t recognise local issues."
"General red tape: Exhausting and long-winded to do simple things."
"Parish & Town Councils have little influence and can only provide opinions to District Council."
"Inconsistency between policy & action - distrust."

Ideas from these workshops included lobbying for change:

"Lobby MPs to make them look at flooding issues in Somerset as a whole."
"Call on IDBs to help make Government more aware of the issues - they only pay attention during the crisis."

And at the public events, there was a sense of wanting the issue to be tackled collaboratively, with good partnership working:

“Committed and strong leadership - local, regional & national. Lots of partnership working.”
“Can we join up our thinking better? EA/NE/IDB/SCC...?”

For context, the organisations referred to are listed below.

• EA - Environment Agency. The EA are responsible for taking a strategic overview of the management of all sources of flooding and coastal erosion, and are responsible for managing the risk of flooding from main rivers, reservoirs, estuaries and the sea.

• NE - Natural England. NE are responsible for promoting nature conservation and protecting biodiversity, conserving and enhancing the landscape and overseeing environmental protections and wildlife licensing. NE play a key role on the Somerset Levels & Moors, much of which is protected by designations such as Sites for Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).

• IDB - Internal Drainage Boards. The Somerset Drainage Boards Consortium is a public body that manages water levels in a defined low-lying area. IDBs undertake works to reduce flood risk to people and property, and manage water levels for agricultural and environmental needs within their district. They also contribute £20k per year towards the Somerset Rivers Authority budget (see below).

• SCC - Somerset County Council. SCC is the Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA), responsible for coordinating flood risk management in Somerset. They are responsible for managing the risk of flooding from surface water, groundwater and ordinary watercourses, and they lead on community recovery.

• Other organisations involved in Somerset’s water management include Wessex Water, who are responsible for managing the risks of flooding from piped water and foul or combined sewer systems.

• Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) is a partnership between all the flood risk management authorities, local councils and Natural England. The SRA raises funds through the Council Tax to provide Somerset with an extra level of flood protection and resilience (currently circa £2.9 million). One of the challenges is that the SRA is dependant on a regular renewal of commitment from Somerset’s councils, who vote every year on whether they should once again support ‘shadow precepting’, raising the SRA budget through the Council Tax.