Agenda and minutes

The Committee noted the appointment of Mr D Baker in place of Mr B MacDowall

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting held on 18 November 2013 are correctly recorded and that they be signed by the Chairman.  

(1)       Mr Ian Nunn from the Environment Agency began his presentation by saying that the flood events over the recent winter months had been worse than those of 2000.  It had rained incessantly over the entire period.  He believed that Kent was the area of the UK most at risk from flooding and that the recent events bore this out.  There had been widespread flooding across the County, including a high number of affected properties.

(2)       Mr Nunn went on to say that the Flood Incident Room had been open for some 50 days and had only closed at the start of the previous week.  Everyone concerned had worked very hard for long periods and he thanked the Committee for having already unofficially thanked all staff for everything that they had done.

(3)       Mr Nunn briefly explained that most people registered to receive Flood Warnings rather than Flood Alerts (which called for people to stay alert and vigilant).  Often, they were not prepared for the emergency when the Flood Warning came. Fortunately, there had been no risk to life which would have necessitated a Severe Flood Warning.

(4)       There had initially been a massive coastal event, which had seen water levels rise higher than they had in 1953 (particularly in places such as Dover and Rye), making it a straightforward decision to close the Thames Barrier. This had been essential to avoid London flooding, but had resulted in significant damage to Kent’s tidal defences.  Repairs to these were ongoing. Those at Sandwich and Jurys Gap were almost repaired at a cost of some £1.5m to date.

(5)       The coastal event had been followed by very heavy rainfall. Between 23 December and 5 January the total rainfall had been some 500% of the usual average for that period.  The months of October, December, January and February had all seen rainfall well above the normal average.

(6)       Mr Nunn said that the key was “warning, informing and preparing”. The highest priority was to get information out to the highest number of people at risk.  Operationally, the EA sought to prepare its assets and to link up with its partners in order to ensure that its response was as effective as possible.

(7)       Over 1,000 properties had been flooded over the period in question whilst some 40,000 had been protected by the flood defences.

(8)       Mr Nunn continued by saying that over 12,000 Flood Alerts, Flood Warnings and Severe Flood Warnings had been issued during the coastal flooding period. Thirteen percentent had been unsuccessful.   Some 18,000 had been issued in January and February, of which 15% had been unsuccessful. 26,000 Groundwater alerts had been issued in the same period.

(9)       The main reasons for Flood Warnings being unsuccessful were people picking up the phone and not listening to the entire message; unobtainable numbers; ringing with no answer; dialled but no ring; and engaged.  A great deal of work would need to be undertaken to ensure that as many of the unsuccessful warnings as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

(1)          Mr Martin Twyman from the Little Stour and Nailbourne River Management Group gave a presentation that was accompanied by photographs which appear on the KCC website on the agenda for this meeting. He said that the Management Group comprised 11 Parish Councils from Lyminge to Stourmouth, the Canterbury region to Sandwich Great Stour as well as many farmers and landowners who had once again been affected by the recent floods. He added that he was also putting forward views held by many other parishioners.

(2)       Mr Twyman thanked Ian Nunn and Andrew Pearse and their teams from the Environment Agency as well as various councils. He wished especially to thank Ted Edwards from Canterbury CC. He also thanked  other organisations, the Army and the many local volunteers. He said that without everyone pulling together the situation would have been far worse.

(3).      Mr Twyman continued by saying that the Management Group had attended a similar meeting after the floods in 2001.  Similar warnings and events had been repeated on this occasion.  The Nailbourne had started flowing in mid January as it normally did. This was the sixth time this had happened since 2000. This had caused 5 major sewage infiltrations and had led to disgraceful replications of the events of previous years. It was stressful and not acceptable to the local residents in this day and age.  These stresses included overpumping by Southern Water into the watercourses, sewage into properties, a continual fleet of lorries thoughout the entire 24 hours of the day (although they were doing a necessary job), many road closures and businesses being put out of action. Southern Water had on three occasions undertaken major repairs (some successfully) but these events kept on occurring. It only needed the Nailbourne to flow to find the leakages and breaks. The pumping station at Bekesbourne was again in a terrible state, with the major watercourse blockage through the underpass of the railway line. The villages surrounding Bridge had taken the brunt, and Bridge High Street looked like a war zone.

(4)       Mr Twyman then said that consideration needed to be given to a holding area or reservoir in the Upper Nailbourne valley and to the construction of the Broad Oak reservoir, to cope with the fairly regular events of water availability and future water requirements. The Management Group considered that the Nailbourne had three different section. These were Lyminge to Barham; Barham to Littlebourne; and Littlebourne to Seaton. There were many pinch points along each of these sections.

(5).      The Environment Agency had constructed the relief channel around Littlebourne and Wickhambreaux after the flooding of 2001. This had been a saviour as it had been successful in avoiding house flooding,  and the Action Group was grateful to them and the landowners. There was, however, a major pinch point between Wickham and Ickham Lane as the underpass was not big enough. Major services ran in the road and 5 major pumps had taken the pinch point pressures  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

(1)       Mr Harwood informed the Committee that the Environment Agency had issued 106 Flood Alerts and Flood Warnings since the previous meeting of the Committee on 18 November 2013. This contrasted with the total of 95 in the whole of 2013.  The same period had seen 87 Severe Weather Warnings, as opposed to 42 in 2013. 

(2)       Mr Harwood said that the whole of Kent had been affected over the period, and that this had been in terms of storm conditions as well as flooding. The extent of power outages, some 28,000 recorded across Kent, had contributed significantly to the problems faced by responders.

(3)       Mr Harwood referred to lectures given some ten years earlier by the Insurance Industry in which the prediction had been made that weather patterns were changing and that storms were increasingly tracking from the Atlantic Ocean across the southern UK, instead of the Bay of Biscay and northern Scotland.  This prediction appeared to have been borne out by recent events.  In a warming world, with increased sea and air temperatures, it was predicted that autumns and winters would become increasingly wet and stormy.  

(4)       Mr Harwood then said that emergency planning delivery in Kent was changing from the start of the 2014/15 financial year. Ten of the currently thirteen members of the Emergency Planning Team would be seconded to a multi-agency Resilience Team based within the Kent Fire and Rescue Service.  KCC Emergency Planning would now consist of Mr Harwood himself and Mr Greg Surtees.

(5)       Mr Harwood replied to a question from Mrs Stockell by saying that the creation of the multi-agency Resilience Team, comprising Fire, Police and KCC Emergency Planning, was designed to strengthen the County’s ability to respond to emergencies.  The Emergency Planning Centre would need to be retained as KCC was the Lead Agency for a number of functions.  He said that it would now become even more important for Managers and other staff across KCC to engage more robustly with the emergency planning agenda to ensure that corporate resilience was maintained.

(6)       Mr Harwood went on to pay tribute to the Voluntary Sector whose work across the entire range of responses to the winter severe weather emergencies had been crucial.

(7)       Dr Eddy reported that he had visited the local Emergency Centre in Dover shortly after the coastal event had begun.  Whilst he had been there, an urgent request had been received from the Police for some of its staff to go to Sandwich. Having done so, these Dover DC staff had neither been given the necessary equipment nor been fed.

(8)       Dr Eddy also reported that some of the affected areas in the Dover District (such as East Studdle) had never experienced an emergency such as this before.  Overall, the public had been very complimentary about the high quality response from local authority personnel in that area.

(9)       RESOLVED that the level of alerts received since the last meeting of the Committee be noted together with comments made  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

(1)       Mr Tant reminded the Committee that the Local Flood Risk Management Strategy had been adopted in June 2013.  A review and update of the Strategy had been scheduled for the year-end.  Both were progressing well, as set out in the Appendices to the report.

(2)       Mr Tant then said that KCC’s new role for SuDS  was now expected to commence in October 2014.

(3)       Mr Tant replied to questions from Dr Eddy by saying that the most significant action to be taken forward in Deal Town was likely to be in Church Road.  The Wantsum Channel was a main river. The issue of the Nailbourne was that there were more than just fluviual issues (e.g. groundwater flooding and sewage). KCC’s role in this case was to act as part of a multi-agency group.  Kent’s role in respect of the Wantsum Channel would be similar to this.

(4)       In response to a question from Mrs Stockell, the Chairman confirmed that the Review would be considered by the Environment, Highways and Waste Cabinet Committee.

(5)       Mr Tapp commented that the amount of wheat lost due to the flooding events amounted to some 8 million loaves of bread. 

(6)       Mr Bird said that the Natural Trust had estimated that more trees had been lost than in 1987.  Many of these were on Council property.  Even though they would fulfil a valuable flood defence function in their fallen state, they would need to be replaced as living flora.

(5)       RESOLVED that the implications and risks associated with delivering the 2014/15 action plan be noted.            

(1)           The Committee noted that its next meeting would be held on Monday, 21 July. It would be preceded by a visit to the Leigh Barrier.

(2)       Committee Members also expressed their appreciation of the site tour that had been organised in the morning and asked for a letter to be sent to Mr Nick Sandford at Goddinton House thanking him and the National Trust for welcome them on to the land and for giving his time to demonstrate the river remedial measures that had been put in place.