Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 8 February (HL5157), what consideration they are giving to the introduction of interim flood mitigation measures until the scheme to increase the capacity of the River Sowy and King's Sedgemoor drain system is completed.

The Environment Agency and Somerset County Council have recently delivered key interim improvements to the River Sowy and King’s Sedgemoor Drain system on behalf of the Somerset Rivers Authority. These works address priority flow constriction concerns in advance of the completion of the enhancement project and include:

• Doubling of the flow capacity in the River Sowy flood plain beneath the A372 highway at Beer Wall. The new arrangement prevents road closures as experienced during the 2014 flooding.
• Removal of a constricting bridge pier feature in the King’s Sedgemoor Drain at Dunball, increasing local flow capacity and minimising the potential for scour damage to a road bridge downstream.
• Installation of a new control weir at Chedzoy, reducing the risk of flooding in the Penzoy river system.

The Environment Agency plans to also dredge arches of bridges over the King’s Sedgemoor Drain at Parchey and Dunball, increasing flood flow capacity by March 2018.

The Environment Agency is working with the Somerset Drainage Boards Consortium to improve three structures, which manage the flow between field drains and the King’s Sedgemoor Drain, to increase further its resilience to higher flows.