Chard 'needs to come together' to help tackle flooding
A new multi-agency flood plan could be created as part of a proposed new Chard Flood Resilience Group.
Last updated 25th Jan 2022
After being almost cut off twice because of flooding last year, Chard could get a new multi-agency response plan
A public meeting was held last night in the Guildhall for residents to discuss what could be done.
Plans proposed last night include creating a network of volunteers who can quickly close roads and stop cars getting stuck.
In the recent floods, Rachel Dawey couldn't get home because all the roads were impassable. she said: "For a town surrounded by A roads with A roads going through it, there's no excuse - it's frustrating that this small town can get cut off the way that it did."
She was lucky enough to be able to push the vehicle she was travelling in out of floodwater - after a large HGV pushed water onto her vehicle where she was stopped.
She said: "Me and my friend got out of the car, we pushed one of the cars out and there was quite a few people there.
"There was already already another two or three cars that had actually been caught out in the flood and so there was recovery vehicles coming along.
"There were people locally that were coming along and helping people just to get going."
The Mayor of Chard, Councillor Jason Baker, says the clean-up showed all agencies need to work together.
He said: "I think it would be really good to get all the agencies working together and also to get a volunteer group so that we've got more people on the ground that can actually spring into action as and when we need them.
"I think it would make a massive difference looking at things like Glynswood, a lot of the damage was caused by traffic moving up and down and if we can close roads quicker when these flash floods happen and different incidents occur we can have people locally rather than waiting for people to come in and actually help us."
The mayor believes while some flooding could be the result of 'maintenance issues' with certain drains they need to fully understand what caused the problems and what action could be take to prevent a repeat of last year's scenes.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, councillor David Hall, Somerset County Council’s Cabinet member for Climate Change, Planning and Infrastructure, and Chair of Somerset Rivers Authority, said: "There are likely to be a great many factors at play in Chard, as we work to discover why the flooding as a result of extreme weather in June was followed up with further flooding in October
“The investigation is looking at a range of issues such as how extreme the weather event was, water run-off from land surrounding the town, the maintenance of drainage on both public and private land, the impact of recent development, and possible changes to farming practices.
“It will include contributions from many people, including residents, private landowners, local farmers, County, District, Town and Parish Councils, the Environment Agency,  Wessex Water and the Somerset Rivers Authority.
“When the investigation concludes, we will ask the Somerset Rivers Authority to take an overview of the work of partners in the Chard area. Extreme weather is becoming more common as climate change begins to have an impact on weather around the world and we need to make sure that Chard is prepared and resilient to heavy rainfall in the future.”