Flood Recovery Update - June 2026

Thunderstorms and intense downpours on Monday 22 June led to flash flooding in a number of towns in Somerset, with businesses and homes impacted. You can find advice about flood recovery and actions to take online, including Flood Mary’s Recovery Guide and What to do after a flood - GOV.UK.

It’s never too late to report flooding, either from last week’s event or from the winter floods. Reporting can identify contributing factors, impacts and sources of flooding, and you may have important information that helps build an accurate picture of what happened. Reporting helps capture the true economic cost of a flood, which makes the case for funding and investment stronger.

You can report flooding in Somerset on the Flood Online Reporting Tool (FORT): FORT - Home. Information submitted on FORT is an important part of the data under review from the winter floods.

On 9 June, the Government announced a £50 million investment in Somerset for flood resilience, which Somerset Council will be using to develop of 2-year programme of works to reduce flood risk, improve preparedness and strengthen long-term resilience. Please contact Somerset Council for more information.

Since the winter floods, we have completed an extensive programme of 2,300 asset inspections across Wessex. These inspections help us to understand the condition of our assets, and identify potential refurbishment or repair works. An asset may be an embankment, concrete wall, outfall, culvert, pumping station, sheet piles or other structures that help reduce flood risk in and around our rivers and coastlines. Assets needing repair are put into a programme of works, which is prioritised according to risk and available funding. We are using the information from the asset inspections to inform our asset repair programme.

Viney's Bridge culvertWork underway includes the bypass culvert around Viney’s Bridge on the Northmoor Main Drain, which is now operational, improving flows to Northmoor Pumping Station (see picture). We have also installed new pumps at Midelney Pumping Station, as part of a £9 million upgrade programme. The new equipment is more reliable and efficient, and represents a significant investment in our pumping stations in Somerset. This programme will also see pumps at Huish Episcopi, Northmoor and Westover Pumping Stations replaced over the next two years.

Somerset Rivers Authority have committed to contributing £250,000 towards enhanced pumps at Bathpool. Currently, we deploy temporary pumps to this area, but this project will create more resilience when the River Tone is too high to allow water to drain naturally back into the river. Bathpool was the worst affected area in Somerset this winter, and Somerset Council are undertaking an investigation into the flood that occurred there, as part of their duties under Section 19 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.

In other areas reliant on pumping across the Somerset Levels and Moors, we are reviewing procedures to optimise the deployment of pumps when they are needed, and looking for any opportunities to upgrade pump infrastructure to enable a rapid, efficient and safe response to flooding when it occurs. Thanks to investment since 2014, pumps were deployed in record time this year, and over 180 properties were protected from flooding. However, climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of flooding, so it is more important than ever that flood defences are operational, pumping is optimised, and communities are prepared.

We recently attended the Somerset Rivers Authority Board meeting, where we updated partners and members of the public. We will be attending the next Hestercombe LCN meeting, which was postponed due to the extreme heat this week. We will continue to update communities via this page as recovery work progresses.