Communities affected by flooding will no longer be given sandbags by Somerset Council.
The authority says it needs to create a standardised policy after inheriting different approaches from Somerset’s five district councils when they merged last year.
Councils do not have a statutory duty to provide them and Somerset Council says the new policy will 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 council says: “Responsibility to protect property from flooding rests with the property owner.”
“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.
Somerset Council intends to publicise the new sandbag policy as much as possible in order 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, 13th March, unless the decision is called in before.
