Sandbags no longer to be given out by Somerset Council

The village of Moorland was at the centre of the Somerset floods in 2014

Communities affected by flooding will no longer be given sandbags by Somerset Council.

The local authority said it needed to create a standardised policy after inheriting different approaches from Somerset's five district councils when they merged.

Councils do not have a statutory duty to provide them.

Somerset Council said the new policy would make it clearer to homeowners what their responsibilities were.

The decision was taken by Dixie Darch, the lead member for the environment at Somerset Council.

In a report about the change, the authority said: "Responsibility to protect property from flooding rests with the property owner.

'Not a surprise'

"Sandbags are not always the most effective mechanism to protect a property and provision in a timely way in adverse weather conditions can be complex."

With Somerset Council struggling to balance its books, the report also said there was "no budget for provision of sandbags" to continue.

David Bell, from the Chard Action Resilience Group (Carg), said he was not surprised by the decision.

He said Carg was put together to fill "gaping holes" in how the authorities did not react in times of need.

"To be quite honest, them not handing out sandbags has been par for the course and has been going on for ages," he said.

Somerset Council plans to publicise the new sandbag policy as much as possible, to give households adequate time to prepare themselves for future flooding events, and to look into alternative forms of protection.

A decision was also taken to maintain the council's strategic stockpile of sandbags to protect its own assets in the event of certain emergencies, like coastal flooding or breached reservoirs.

The new sandbag policy will come into effect on Wednesday, 13 March, as long as no one calls in the decision beforehand.