MENDIP SOUTH ANNUAL REPORT

Lib Dem Somerset Councillor Briefing  |  April 2026

Cllr Claire Sully & Cllr Rob Reed

1.  Council Finances — Closing the Budget Gap

Bottom line: the worst-case has been avoided, but borrowing continues and scrutiny is essential.

Funding gap: Cut from £101m (March 2025) to £25m (February 2026) — a significant turnaround.

Exceptional Financial Support: £30m approved in principle by MHCLG (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government )— £25m to close the gap, £5m for service transformation.

Mechanism: Capitalisation Direction — day-to-day costs spread over time via borrowing or asset sales. Independent external assurance review is a mandatory condition.

Council Tax: 4.99% rise confirmed at Full Council on 4 March 2026.

What residents said (Dec 2025 consultation, 1,400+ responses)

• 62% backed a council tax rise to protect services
• 86% want the council to lobby central government for more funding
• Top priority: roads and pavements (55%), then crime (29%), public transport and schools (28% each)
• 83% opposed cuts to road maintenance; 68% opposed cuts to waste services

Savings trajectory

• Inspiring Innovation investments of £15.3m projected to deliver £20.6m of immediate savings
• Further savings estimated at £31m–£57m by 2030/31
  
  

2.  Roads — Potholes

Bottom line: record defect reports this winter, but investment is now flowing and Somerset holds green road ratings.

Scale of the problem: Since January 2026 — 16,332 defect reports received (vs 4,417 in the same period last year — nearly 4x more), driven by the exceptionally wet winter.

Repairs underway: As of 20 February, 35 teams had fixed 4,577 potholes. Repairs prioritised by severity: 2 hours / 24 hours / 7 days / 28 days.

New investment

• Up to £5m over 3 years for smarter roads — drain and gully clearance, improved signs and markings, litter and vegetation clearance near walking/cycling routes, improved public reporting system
• In 2025/26: plan to resurface 55km and apply preventative treatments to 185km of road

Somerset's road ratings (DfT traffic-light system)

• GREEN for road condition (A, B, C and unclassified roads)
• GREEN for preventative maintenance
• AMBER overall — due to RED rating on capital spend levels (despite being on track to use 98% of DfT allocation)

Mendip South specifics

• A361 Pilton drainage works: completed 9–13 March (weekday closures 9:30am–3:30pm)
• A361 Frome bypass: consultation open on reducing speed limit from 60mph to 50mph, following 5 fatal collisions in 5 years. AI camera enforcement and resurfacing also planned. Campaign led by Anna Sabine MP and local councillors.

Report potholes: https://www.somerset.gov.uk/roads-travel-and-parking/potholes-and-road-damage/

Mendip South Road Defects — Dec 2025 to Feb 2026

267 safety defects completed across 19 communities in the division — every one fixed by Somerset Highways.

What was fixed:

• 165 carriageway potholes (62% of all defects)
• 44 edge loss repairs (road edges crumbling — a wet winter effect)
• 16 multiple safety defect jobs (sections with several issues tackled in one visit)
• Remaining 42 defects: carriageway flooding, drainage and gully work, fallen trees, debris clearance, covers and kerbs

Busiest locations (total defects completed):

• West Pennard: 71 (A361 Stockbridge Lane/Steanbow stretch alone accounted for 40+ repairs)
• Pilton: 41 (A361 and Lamberts Hill B3136 both heavily affected)
• Baltonsborough: 19 (Tilham Lane and Mill Street worst affected)
• Lydford on Fosse: 18 (Rubbery Lane: 12 potholes in a single stretch)
• Butleigh: 17 | Ditcheat: 15  |  East Pennard: 14  |  Lamyatt/Batcombe: 13  |  Baltonsborough /Coxbridge: 12  |  Evercreech: 12

Mendip South Road Defects — March 2026

136 safety defects completed across 15 communities — the repair effort continues into spring.

What was fixed:

• 99 carriageway potholes (73% of all defects)
• 18 multiple safety defect jobs (sections with several issues tackled in one visit)
• 9 edge loss repairs
• Remaining 10 defects: drainage, gully, debris, fallen tree, manhole works

Busiest locations:

• Pilton: 24 (Whitstone Hill and Lamberts Hill again prominent)
• Butleigh Wootton: 23 (Back Lane and Looks Lane both heavily worked)
• Baltonsborough: 21 (Burnetts Lane: 11 potholes in one stretch; Tuckers Lane also busy)
• Lydford on Fosse: 16 (Westwood Drove: 11 multiple safety defects tackled in one job)
• Evercreech: 15 | Butleigh: 7  |  Ditcheat: 7  |  Pylle: 6
  
  

Running total Dec 2025–Mar 2026: 403 safety defects completed across Mendip South — a sustained repair effort through the wettest winter in recent memory.

See something that needs fixing? Report online https://www.somerset.gov.uk/roads-travel-and-parking/potholes-and-road-damage/ or call 0300 123 2224 (urgent/out of hours)

3.  Housing & Planning

Bottom line: a landmark new homes milestone and a major cultural venue secured.

New council homes — Minehead

• 54 zero-carbon council homes opened on Seaward Way/Rainbow Way — 33 flats, 21 houses
• First council housing scheme in West Somerset for a generation; all let to local people under a local lettings policy
• Described nationally (Guardian) as part of a wider revival in publicly-led council housebuilding

Octagon Theatre, Yeovil — £15m refurbishment approved

• Planning permission granted for major overhaul of the 50-year-old theatre
• Works include: accessibility upgrades, backstage and front-of-house improvements, energy efficiency measures, new Changing Places facility, upgraded stage systems
• Funding: £10m from DCMS, £3.75m from Yeovil Town Council (loan and reserves), £1.25m+ from ticket levy, fundraising and Section 106 via Somerset Council
• Tender process now under way; work expected to start in 2026/27

SEND — new school places

• Somerset plans 250+ new SEN unit places over 3 years to teach more children closer to home
• Current pressures: 1,000+ EHCPs awaiting completion; demand up 47% in five years; independent special school spending running at £42m vs £35m budget

4.  Flooding

Bottom line: Storm Chandra exposed ongoing vulnerability. Emergency response worked — but long-term investment is the only real answer.

Storm Chandra — the incident (January 2026)

• Somerset declared a major incident after exceptionally heavy rain fell on already saturated ground
• Rapid rises in river and moorland water levels across the county; major incident declaration enabled pooled multi-agency resources
• At peak: all 6 extra pumps operating at Northmoor. By 31 January: no further property flooding reported
• Storm Chandra followed multiple recent storms, setting new short-duration rainfall records in the south-west

What experts say

• Climate scientists link the pattern directly to global heating: warmer air holds more water vapour, producing heavier downpours
• Communities are experiencing impacts earlier than expected
• Emergency measures (pumps, contractors) are necessary but insufficient without sustained funding and nature-based interventions

Somerset Rivers Authority — Enhanced Programme 2026-27

Total budget: £4,060,293 (including £3,190,293 from Somerset council tax — frozen at £14.65 Band D since 2016)

Allocated to projects: £2,839,880 across 17 schemes countywide

Key projects relevant to Mendip South:

• River Parrett dredging — continued Water Injection Dredging downstream of Burrowbridge, shifting ~25,000m³ of sediment to maintain channel capacity; funded for a further 5 years (2026–2031)
• Natural Flood Management (NFM) — up to 20 new schemes to slow water flow from upper catchments, including the Somerset Frome and Brue catchments which drain through Mendip South
• Community Flood Action Fund — small grants directly to Somerset communities for local flood reduction works; 13 grants already awarded
• Early flood warning systems — localised systems being extended and tested across a second winter

For updates: https://www.somersetriversauthority.org.uk/news/

5.  Environment & Active Travel

Bottom line: green lanes, bus investment and recycling improvements all moving forward.

Green Lanes consultation

• Somerset Council consulting on trial changes at five rural/edge-of-residential routes to improve access for walkers, cyclists, horse riders and wheeling users
• Trials would be followed by further consultation before any permanent changes; nearby residents and businesses will be notified by letter
  
  Key Consultation Locations:
• Burcott Lane, Wells: South of a 47-home development.
• Comeytrowe Road, Taunton: Near Lloyd Close, connecting to Galmington Stream.
• Neville's Batch (Highcroft Lane), Gurney Slade:.
• Downend Road, Puriton: North of A39 near Dunball roundabout.
• Touches Lane, Chard: Near Chard Reservoir and the household recycling
  
  

Bus service improvements

• Government Bus Service Fund award: ~£11.4m capital to 2029/30 and £13.1m revenue to 2028/29
• Plans include: expanded Digital Demand Responsive Transport (DDRT), better rail integration, improved links to employment and health, transport hubs, and Project Coral multi-operator ticketing
• Decisions on measures and costings expected from the Council Executive in early March

Recycling — changes for flats

• From end of March 2026: expanded communal recycling collections for ~13,000 households in flats
• New collections include: plastic bottles, pots/tubs/trays, tins/cans/foil, glass, cartons, food waste and plastic bags/wrappers
• Funded by Government's Simpler Recycling programme

Roads & cycling investment

• Up to £5m over 3 years also covers vegetation clearance near walking and cycling routes, and improved signs and road markings
• Frome bypass safety improvements (50mph, AI cameras, resurfacing) will also benefit active travel on and around the A361 corridor

Strawberry Line & Somerset Circle — £730,000 grant approved

This is directly relevant to Mendip South — the route runs through Shepton Mallet, Wells, Cheddar and surrounding communities.

• £730,000 grant awarded to Greenways and Cycleroutes over 2 years to develop the Strawberry Line and Somerset Circle active travel routes
• Strawberry Line: connects Shepton Mallet to Yatton via Wells and Cheddar — mostly off-road, following the former Cheddar Valley railway line (“the Strawberry Line”) closed in the 1960s
• Somerset Circle: extends the Strawberry Line to link with routes through Bristol, Bath and North Somerset — a mostly traffic-free circular route of around 76 miles
• Who delivers it: Greenways and Cycleroutes (charitable organisation), using professional staff, local contractors and large numbers of volunteers — recently awarded first place by the European Greenways Association
• Funding source: £257,930 from redirected DfT bypass capital (Walton/Ashcott scheme) + £472,070 from Highways and Transport active travel capital allocation — no new financial pressure on the Council
• Key benefits for residents: better connections between rural communities; low-cost leisure and active travel; reduced car dependency; tourism and local business boost; accessible surface suitable for wheeling and mobility vehicles
• Funds released in at least 3 tranches with break points; leases must be minimum 10 years; Greenways and Cycleroutes responsible for operational and financial risk of delivery

Somerset Council main line: 0300 123 2224    Travel updates: @TravelSomerset