Sept/Oct 2025 Newsletter

Welcome to our Autumn 2025 update. Inside you will find our partner news, information about our latest events and more. There are a few diary dates that are worth a mention. Firstly, Flood Mary is visiting Somerset for three events. She will be sharing her knowledge and expertise on flooding and property flood resilience. We would love you to raise awareness of this opportunity with your community and encourage as many people as possible to visit and learn. 

Secondly there is the annual Somerset Prepared Community Resilience Day on 15 October at Taunton Racecourse Conference Centre. This event features a host of inspiring and practical workshops on resilience topics that YOU have asked for - so make the most of this free event and book places for your community representatives today. 

If you have any queries about this or any of the other features in our newsletter, please get in touch at somersetprepared@somerset.gov.uk. We would also welcome submissions or suggestions for future topics.

 Best wishes, 

Somerset Emergency Planning, Response and Recovery team

& Somerset Prepared Partners

Autumn begins in Sherford

We are really excited to welcome Flood Mary to the county. If you would like this flyer as a jpeg or pdf to share onwards please email us on somersetprepared@somerset.gov.uk.

Flood Mary has also produced a brand new property flood resilience directory which you can access here

Nominate your community’s resilience stars by Monday 15th September!

 Do you know an unsung hero who has made their community more resilient? Or a group that has gone above and beyond to champion community resilience in Somerset?

 Why not nominate them for a Somerset Prepared award?  These awards recognise people and groups who taken that extra step to help their community be better able to deal with emergencies. They may have set up a flood group or run a good neighbour scheme or written a community emergency plan or arranged for some volunteer training etc.

 Awards will be presented in two categories: 

• Group award – for community organisations demonstrating exceptional emergency planning or preparedness 

• Individual award – for people who have made significant personal contributions to community resilience 

 Visit https://www.somersetprepared.org.uk/somerset-community-resilience-awards to submit a nomination by Monday 15th September.

The awards will be presented at the annual Somerset Prepared Community Resilience Day, which will be held at Taunton Racecourse on Thursday, 15 October.

 Last year’s individual winner was Lucie Reader of Pitcombe, whose exceptional leadership led to all homes in her community being flood protected for future emergencies. The group winner was Nunney Parish Council, whose councillors supported their community by proactively working with residents to improve their resilience to flooding.    

Our annual Resilience Day features a wide range of workshops on all resilience topics. You can expect sessions on community-level adaptation for severe weather and climate change, groundwater flooding, power outages and community resilience, food resilience, testing your emergency plan, fraud protection measures and much more. Workshops are run in parallel sessions so make sure several members of your community come along to get the most out of the day. Bok your tickets here: http://bit.ly/3YaSO81

Partner Update from EVAG

EVAG, a registered charity, has held workshops in partnership with Somerset Prepared in communities throughout Somerset.  The aim is to explain what and how we work, and to identify households which are exposed to threats of floods. 

We then visit those homes and issue flood protection equipment to at least mitigate the threats or even prevent flooding.

We welcome the opportunity to work in those parishes and towns which have not yet had the undoubted pleasure of our company!

Parish clerks are welcome to contact us directly or via Somerset Prepared.

Contact: evag@evag.uk

Digital Changeover Update from BT/EE/Plusnet

Further Digital Changeover Information Events have been published for locations in Somerset.  The team working on behalf of BT/EE/Plusnet providers to help customers with the Digital Changeover of landline phones happening in January 2027 will be pleased to help you.  They have arranged the following dates and venues for the public to attend and receive information and assistance on what will happen.  The Taunton Racecourse venue will be for those people attending the Somerset Prepared Community Resilience Day only.   The Frome dates are for any member of the public to attend.

 15 Oct - Taunton - Taunton Racecourse for Somerset Prepared Community Resilience Day (ticket required for this event - see link above)

 28 Oct - Frome - Cattle Market Car Park, Bridge Street, Frome BA11 1BE

 29 Oct - Frome - North Parade Pay and Display, Fromefield, Frome BA11 2AB

 There will hopefully be more venues in the Somerset area which will appear in the Somerset Prepared Newsletter in due course.

Partner Update from Somerset Rivers Authority

The next SRA Board meeting will be in Taunton, for the first time in three years. The meeting starts 9.45am, Friday 12 September and members of the public we welcome. Please send us any public questions you may have about matters involving the SRA by 12 noon on Monday 8 September, so we can aim to give you answers at the meeting.

Subjects coming up at the meeting include the maintenance of main rivers across Somerset, the River Sowy - King's Sedgemoor Drain system, River Brue modelling, and the SRA's Community Flood Action Fund. You can find the full agenda here

Below you will also see details of our first Flood Group Network meetings. These are for flood wardens, parish and town councillors, and other community members with an interest in flooding. If you want to share knowledge and ideas to build flood resilience for your community come along and help shape the future of these gatherings. 

News from Glastonbury Town Council

Finally - take three actions to help

This spring here are three things you can do to make a difference for your community:

• Add this date to your diary: 15th October 2025. This is the date of our next Resilience Day at Taunton Racecourse Conference Centre.

• Share the Flood Mary visit dates with your community

• Talk to EVAG about the support they can give local households in need

Featured images 

Here at somerset prepared we like to feature somerset in all its glory! Do you have an image of Somerset you would like to share? Send your images to somersetprepared@somerset.gov.uk for a chance to be featured!