Agenda and minutes

To note the appointment of Cllr Geraldine Brown (KALC) and Mr Paul Flaherty (KFRS) as representatives of their organisations on the Committee.

(1)       The Committee welcomed the appointment of Cllr Mrs Geraldine Brown (KALC) and Mr Paul Flaherty (Kent Fire and Rescue).

(2)       The Chairman briefly reported that Members of the Committee had visited the Leigh Barrier before the meeting.  He said that the visit had been very worthwhile and that the Environment Agency would be arranging a series of Open Days in September when those Members who had not been able to take part in the visit would be able to do so.

(3)       Following the meeting, the Open Day dates were notified to the Democratic Services Officer as follows:-

RESOLVED that, subject to the amendment to paragraph 24 of Minute 3 to indicate that Mr Bird had said that no serious flood warning had been received in Yalding, as well as some other minor textual amendments, the Minutes of the meeting held on 11 March 2014 are correctly recorded and that they be signed by the Chairman.

(1)       The Chairman reported his attendance at the Scrutiny Committee meeting on 12 June 2014, where he had been accompanied by the Flood Risk Manager, Max Tant, the Senior Resilience Officer, Tony Harwood and Andrew Tait from Democratic Services. 

(2)          RESOLVED that the report be noted, together with the assurance that the Committee is carrying out its work to the Scrutiny Committee’s satisfaction.  

(1)       The Chairman introduced the report on the decision of the Cabinet meeting on 7 July 2014 in respect of how KCC, in collaboration with its partners, could be better prepared to manage storm and flooding events in the future. He stressed the 17 recommendations which had now been agreed by Cabinet and underlined the role of the Committee in considering progress against the targets set.

(2)       Dr Eddy noted that some of the recommendations had been given a start date of April 2014.  He asked for an update on their implementation.

(3)       Mr Harwood said that a Cross-Directorate Steering Group (or Delivery Group) was in the process of being established. It would be chaired by Paul Crick, Director of Environment, Planning and Enforcement.   Meanwhile, work had started on Recommendation 4 (“Implement a strategy to encourage greater flood awareness and individual/Community resilience”) through road shows in different parts of the County.

(4)       Mr Vye asked whether consideration had been given to the use of social media and whether Community Wardens could be utilised to give out the message in areas that were prone to flooding.  He also offered to put forward a list of matters which could be scrutinised by the Committee.

(5)       Mrs Brown said that the parish councils of Yalding, East Peckham and Collier Street had permanent direct access to the Environment Agency control rooms and that discussions had also recently taken place between these parishes and the EA on how best to provide a consistent form of flood warning in the locality. She considered that Community Wardens should not be diverted from their task of looking after vulnerable people and that the risk of using them to deliver flooding messages was that they would do so in a manner which was not consistent with an overall strategy.  She then said that one of the difficulties with using social media to convey warnings was that it provided the mainstream media with the scope and temptation to portray the entire system as though it were a farce.  

(6)       Mr Flaherty said that one of the lessons learned during the winter events was that people had not searched for available information. It was considered that one reason for this was that they did not know how and where to look for it.  Kent Fire and Rescue was therefore working on a training programme for Flood Wardens. He would be able to update the Committee and provide more details at a future meeting.

(7)       RESOLVED that:-

(a)        the report to Cabinet and its 17 recommendations be noted; and  

(b)                      the progress against the targets set be considered at future meetings of the Committee.

(1)       Ms Katie Lewis, Drainage Manager introduced the report, which had originally been intended to focus on the capacity of the highway drainage system. She explained that this report had been expanded to take account of the fact that capacity issues were not the only causes of flooding on the Kent highways. Other issues were the damaged and ageing infrastructure, including ingressive tree roots; damage by third parties, where utility services had laid their services through KCC’s infrastructure; and the very large number of soakways that were now coming very close to the end of their twenty to thirty year life spans.

(2)       The two main capacity issues were connections into the drainage system as a result of the development taking place across the county; and also the number of local residents who were paving over their driveways, leading to more surface water running onto the road instead of draining away through permeable land.  The other issue arose when water had to be discharged into a third party sewer owned by Southern Water or Thames Water.  She said that KCC had no power to require them to increase the capacity of their water drainage system. Consequently, the only alternative (and usually costly) option was to divert water elsewhere. The most cost effective option was to build up the capacity of the highway by, for example, raising kerbs or by erecting permanent flood warning signs.

(3)       Ms Lewis said that land drainage had been a particular problem during the recent winter. Historically, KCC had tended to be over-lenient. A more robust approach was now being adopted.  Although KCC would always seek to work with the landowners, it was now becoming increasingly necessary to use Highway Authority powers by taking enforcement action or by undertaking the work themselves and recharging.

(4)       A one-off additional sum of £3m had been invested by KCC for work on drainage improvement schemes as well as 200 – 300 minor repairs, additional to the work that the County would normally undertake.  Whilst this was good news, it should be born in mind that there had been some 3.5k drainage enquiries which would require investment.

(5)       Mr Lewin referred to a very recent flash flooding event in Swale, Gravesham and Dartford. He suggested that the Kent Planning Officers Group could discuss the entire question of flooding arising out of short term causes in terms of design of residential and commercial development.

(6)        Ms Lewis replied by saying that the Severe Weather Plan was in the process of being re-written to respond to flash flooding occurrences.  It had been very fortunate on this occasion that senior officers had been available to assist.  The follow up discussions were considering the causes in greater depth as well as how to improve liaison arrangements for a rapid response. This discussion would involve Southern Water, the EA and the Emergency Planning Team.  In terms of planning development, much consideration was being given to sustainable drainage.  KCC would soon be in a position to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

(1)          Mr Harwood reported that the Committee papers had been published before the previous weekend’s flooding events.  As a result, the figure of 1 Flood Alert set out in Appendix 1 of the report had now become 4.  The latest events had occurred in the Shuttle and Cray catchment area; the upper River Stour; and the Isle of Sheppey.

(2)       There had also been further significant surface water flooding events in Swale (Sittingbourne, Upchurch and Teynham) and Gravesham. This had included storm damage to the Civic Centre, resulting in communication network failures which, in turn, had made it difficult for the Borough Council’s officers to respond to a lightning strike on a residential property which had required an evacuation and homelessness response. There had also been a power outage failure in Canterbury affecting some 200 properties as a result of a lightning strike on an overhead power cable.  Another power outage failure had occurred in New Romney affecting a number of residents.

(3)       Mr Harwood then said that it was essential that any lessons to be learned were identified and acted upon promptly. 

(4)       Mr Harwood drew the Committee’s attention to the graph in Appendix 2 which showed that the number of KCC resilience and emergency severe weather related incident alerts had been steadily low for much of the previous decade, but had risen sharply over the previous two years.  This could be related to global weather patterns and work should be undertaken to see whether this was the case.

(5)       Mr Hills said that the weather patterns were becoming ever more volatile as evidenced by the increased number and variety of severe weather warnings issues by the Met Office in his own area of New Romney.

(6)       Mrs Brown stressed the need to examine the question of how people could remain in contact with one another when the communications network had been damaged by the weather.

(7)       The Chairman suggested that one method of alternative communication that had been used in the past had been the air raid sirens. In Whitstable, these had been removed even though they might have been able to provide some measure of flood warning. 

(8)       Mrs Stockell stressed the need for alternative communication methods to be explored. One possibility might be the use of the old analogue phones.

(9)       RESOLVED that the level of alerts since the previous meeting of the Committee be noted (as updated at the meeting) together with the longer term trend.

(1)       Mr Tant said that there was provision in the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 for sustainable drainage to be delivered as a matter of course in all new development.  The provision for KCC to become responsible for approving and possibly adopting SuDS schemes had not yet been commenced. Civil Servants had visited KCC as well as a number of other authorities and had underlined that the Government was committed to full implementation of the Act, including SuDS.  The most likely course of events was that there would be an announcement towards the end of the current Parliament that commencement would take place early in the next Parliament.

(2)       Mr Tant replied to a question from the Chairman by saying that the legislation would only apply to new development that took place after the date of commencement.

(3)       RESOLVED that the report be noted.