Somerset Council’s Leader has urged the Government to recognise the severe financial pressure facing rural counties as the clear‑up from Storm Chandra continues and widespread flooding remains across the Levels and Moors.
The county has faced significant disruption over the past week, with a major incident still in place as emergency teams respond to ongoing flooding and damage to infrastructure.
Highways teams have been particularly stretched, with more than 850 road defects – including potholes, blocked drains and other issues – reported over the weekend of 31st January and 1st February. In total, crews are currently working to repair over 3,500 recent defects across Somerset.
The scale of the damage comes just weeks after the Government announced that Somerset ranked in the top 26 out of 153 authorities for road maintenance, with its network scoring ‘Green’ under the Department for Transport’s new grading system. However, the unprecedented rainfall and flooding throughout January have created a major challenge for the county’s road network.
Council Leader Cllr Bill Revans said the situation highlights the need for urgent reform of how rural councils are funded.
“This is another example of where the national model for funding local councils is broken,” he said.
“In Somerset we are a rural county with a large road network and our geography means we are more vulnerable to flooding. With extreme weather and storms becoming more frequent, we want to invest in roads and infrastructure, but more and more of our budget must be spent on essential, demand‑led services like social care.”
He added that the council has worked efficiently with limited resources in recent years, but the increasing frequency of severe weather events is making timely repairs “impossible without additional funding”.
“We are already seeing 60 to 70 per cent more potholes this winter than in previous years due to the extreme weather,” he said. “The cost of fixing those extra potholes alone is likely to be around £1 million, before we even consider the cost of repairing roads that are currently underwater.”
Cllr Revans said the council will continue working to keep residents safe and roads open, but stressed the need for long‑awaited funding reform that reflects the pressures faced by rural counties like Somerset.
Residents are being asked for patience while teams work through the backlog of repairs. Defects can be reported via Somerset Council’s website, where each issue is assessed and prioritised for repair within timescales ranging from two hours to 28 days depending on risk. Temporary measures may be used to keep roads safe until permanent repairs can be completed.
Highways teams have also stepped up their response, increasing from 15 pothole gangs in November to almost double that number following the recent storms, along with additional patching equipment.
