Agenda item

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee to receive a briefing on flood risk.

The Committee received a comprehensive presentation on Flood and Coastal Risk Management in the Welland and Nene Catchment from Josie Bateman, Flood and Water Manager, Northamptonshire County Council and Ben Thornely, Area Flood Risk Manager, Environment Agency.  The salient points contained within the presentation were highlighted:

o   FWM Act 2010 à Roles and Responsibilities

o   Nature of Flood Risk in Northamptonshire & Northampton

o   Capital/Maintenance funding & Partnership Working

o   Growth – EA and NCC input to the planning system

o   Key partners and ways of working

o   Incident  Management

o   Section 19 Flood Investigations

o   Key sites

The Committee heard:

Ø  The Flood and Water Management (FWM) Act 2010 came into force in 2010

Ø  The nature of flood risk in Northamptonshire is extremely varied and widespread.

Ø  Northampton was significantly affected in the Easter 1998 floods – as a result of main river and surface water interactions.

Ø  The sources of recent flooding include a variety of:

-          A small amount of main river affecting caravan sites such as Billing Aquadrome. 

-          Surface water and a great deal of agricultural runoff

-          Ordinary watercourses overtopping, but mainly culverted watercourses surcharging

-          Groundwater in basements

Ø  Josie Bateman advised that the worst week of floods was 21-26^th November 2012 when a significant amounts of rain fell onto already saturated ground.  11 flood warnings were in place for Northamptonshire. Evacuation of Billing Aquadrome and Cogenhoe Caravan Park.   A total of 302 incidents were reported across the two main events. Of these incidents, a total of 128 properties were internally affected by flooding.  Of these reported incidents, a total of 17 incidents meet the draft protocol for formal investigation.

Ø  The Committee was advised that the total hotspot number: is 2,527 from data captured from 2011-20114. It is collated from a wide variety of sources – including Fire and Rescue records; NCC Highways records; Borough and District Authorities, national, local and social media, direct reports to the County Council by phone, email or using the online incident report form or street doctor.

Ø  Environment Agency (EA)  Capital spend in Northamptonshire in 2014/2015: equated to £0.9million;  EA Revenue spend in Northamptonshire in 2014/2015: £2.1m;

Ø  Northamptonshire County Council (NCC)’s total Local Levy contributions for 2015/16 is £641,653 

The Committee made comment, asked questions and heard:

Ø  In response to a query regarding 1:200 flood risk, Ben Thornely advised that this is applicable to defences in the centre of Northampton. Other areas have lower standards of protection; such as Wooldale Road at 1:100.  There are various levels of protection for Wootton Brook - No minimum level is set by DEFRA.  Any new developments within or upstream of Northampton have to attenuate water to a higher standard than most other parts of the country and to demonstrate that they do not increase flood risk. Policy BN7 in the WN JCS details this requirement to attenuate water to a 1:200 (plus climate change) standard – this should not be interpreted a requiring all defences to be increased to this standard.
In answer to a comment regarding Supplementary Planning Guidance and 1:200 flood risk, Ben Thornely further advised that new developments should be to this standard.  It was suggested that this issue is considered at the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme event in March 2016. Ben Thornely proposed a meeting with interested Councillors and Officers before this time.

Ø  In answer to a query about sluice gates in the town centre and whether they are capable and meet requirements to discharge water in large scale; Ben Thornely reported that modelling shows all structure on the Nene in the centre of Northampton are capable of dealing with a flood up to the 1:200 standard.  The Committee felt that technical details should be available on line. Ben Thornely mentioned that this information had been made available to interested parties in the past – they have had full access.

Ø  The Committee heard that 27 formal flood investigations were undertaken, the results of all published.  Consultation exercises take place with all those affected.  Clear recommendations are set.  NCC and the EA do not have powers to enforce the recommendations but publication of them does help.

Ø  There is no legal requirement to publish desk-based investigations, which do not meet the agreed protocol..

Ø  The Committee welcomed the Flood Toolkit that was launched in April 2015.  There are around 1,000 hits on the website each month.  The Toolkit is up for a National Award.

Ø  Northamptonshire County Council has been successful in securing funding for a Pathfinder 2 Project working with 30 new communities

Ø  A second DEFRA bid for small projects (Small Schemes Pathfinder); this funding will inform the efficiency of bids.

Ø  The Flood Warning sirens were raised – Ben Thornely stated that their use was superseded by the provision of the flood defence in the centre of Northampton and that new ways of communicating, such as the Environment Agency’s Flood Line (which sends out flood warnings) and social media, were deemed far more effective and targeted. Communication would occur with the Council and the communities if the sirens were to be decommissioned.

Ben Thornely and Josie Bateman were thanked for providing an informative and comprehensive presentation to the Committee.