The predicted high spring tides this weekend were noticeably underwhelming as flood management staff from all the agencies easily outnumbered water weary flood tourists.

Today’s high tides failed to even touch the underside of the town bridge or emerge through the drains of West Quay although a late surge in Blake Gardens did once again fill up the lower reaches.

James Presdee, head of clean surroundings, was on the frontline today in the park only narrowly escaping getting his boots wet as his staff rushed to take measurements and start pumps whilst energetically striding across the town bridge, head of Sedgemoors Environment department Adrian Gardner, keenly surveyed the unlikely last minute tidal surge.

Sedgemoor was also on standby with a lorry load of sandbags outside the library, possibly pre-empting an incursion up the Parrett by the Russian Black Sea fleet, whilst Somerset Highways people were calmly pumping out the drains on West Quay so that their recently completed expensive refurbishments there weren’t seen to have been working at less than 100%.

And today the Environment Agency had some kind of ‘bobbing up and down floating around on a length of string’ machine apparently to test the  ammount of water tonnage per second was passing by it. The dial showed ‘quite a lot’ and they appeared satisfied and duly noted the statistics.