As Defra secretary Owen Paterson visits areas of Somerset which have been hardest hit by recent flooding, the Met Office has warned that more harsh weather could be on the way.

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Temperatures are set to plummet this week, and forecasters have advised that heavy rain may lead to further flooding and icy conditions affecting communities in Southern and Northern parts of England and Scotland.

The Environment Agency has also issued a large number of flood alerts, covering much of England and Wales. Further severe weather, on top of downpours and storms which struck over the weekend, mean flooding is possible in every region.

Though (amber) flood warnings are active in four English regions (with most in force in the South-West), at the time of writing there are no active Severe Flood Warnings.

Meanwhile, in response to the Defra chief's visit, anti-cull activists have put up signs calling for his resignation. The environment secretary is visiting farmers and members of communities affected by flooding on the Somerset Levels, though cull opponents in Somerset have seized the opportunity to challenge the unpopular policy, championed by Mr Paterson.

Cull companies in two pilot zones in Somerset and Gloucestershire both failed to meet their kill targets last year, despite being granted lengthy extensions. Evidence released last week suggests that less than a quarter of the target badger populations killed in the two zones was dispatched using the 'free-shooting' methodology that the culls were ostensibly designed to trial.  

Update: added 15:15 27.01.2014

Local MP Ian Liddell-Grainger has accused the Environment Agency of exacerbating the ill-effects of flooding by failing to dredge rivers on the Somerset Levels. However, the Agency responded that dredging "is often not the best long term or economic solution compared with other flood risk measures… and would not reduce flood risk on all the rivers on the Somerset Levels because of their tidal nature."

In a joint statement, RSPB and the Somerset Wildlife Trust expressed concern over calls by MPs and other senior figures in Somerset for more dredging of watercourses.

The two wildlife groups claim dredging is an outdated form of flood management and called on the government to create an "evidence-based, effective, and sustainable flood management strategy, fit for the 21st century" through working with the local community. Mark Robins, senior policy officer for the RSPB in the south west commented, "Our concern comes from this dredge being seen as the best or only solution to give the extra protection to homes and critical infrastructure that is needed."

Mr Robins continued, "These [dredging] proposals are based on a scheme design developed over half a century ago in the 1960s. Much has changed on the Levels since then, and the scheme as put forward by the Royal Bath &West Society and others is currently of real concern to [us]."

The charities said the Somerset Levels requires a strategy that benefits both people and wildlife. RSPB and the Wildlife Trust have produced a five-part plan, which they claim could be used to deliver such a strategy.

The plan includes slowing the flow of water upstream to reduce peak floods on the Levels (and restoring natural habitats which they believe could help achieve this) and building greater resilience in land uses on the flood plain. The environment groups recommended the government "incentivise the use of more flood-tolerant pastures, and encourage flood-sensitive crops such as silage and maize to be grown off the floodplain."

RSPB's Mr Robins added, "Recent floods provide a foretaste of things to come on the Levels, as extreme weather events become more frequent, and winters become wetter. A long term systematic shift to more resilience is vital for people and wildlife."