Minutes:
(1) Mr Barry Luck said that he had worked for Southern Water for 30 years and that his role related to its strategic responsibilities including flood alleviation, flood risk management, sustainable drainage and private sewer transfer.
(2) Mr Luck said that the primary legislation for water companies had been set out in the 1991 Water Industry Act. It had been supplemented by the 2003 Water Act, the 2009 Flood Risk Regulations (which encompassed the EU Flood Directive) and the 2010 Flood and Water Management Act. These Acts were reinforced by various Regulations and regulatory processes.
(3) In terms of flood alleviation, Southern Water had (following its periodic price review) set aside some £1.8 billion for its Investment Plan in the period 2010–2015 for environmental improvement work, which included flood alleviation in the Southern Region. The identification of individual schemes was driven by cost-benefit issues. Water Companies were not allowed to consider the value of a property, so the driving factor was the willingness to pay (as identified in Southern Water’s “Willingness to Pay” survey. The water regulator, “Ofwat” normally only permitted funding for a scheme where the benefits were higher than the costs.
(4) Mr Luck then said that Southern Water had developed its flood database which enabled it to compile a register of external and internal flooding incidents and to measure the frequency with which they occurred.
(5) Southern Water placed a greater emphasis on mitigation measures (such as raising airbricks or air-tight doors) rather than on the causes. Currently there were 27 schemes within the Region of which 14 were in Kent.
(6) Mr Luck then addressed the issue of private sewer transfer (for foul/ waste water). He clarified that for the purposes of this topic, a “drain” was a pipeline that served a single property whereas a “sewer” served two or more. Since the Public Health Act had been enacted in 1937, drains and sewers were only public if they were already in place or had been laid or adopted by a sewerage undertaker.
(7) The Water Act 2003 made provision for all private drains and laterals (cross pipes outside the cartilage of any property that connected to the main system) to transfer into public ownership. This provision had not yet been enabled as consideration was still being given to the most effective means of transfer. The Water Companies favoured a single overnight transfer option with a clear appeals procedure for anyone who did not wish this to happen. The most likely implementation date was October 2011 and the cost would be would be spread across all paying customers.
(8) Once transfer had taken place, all new developments in the region would require adoption of drains, sewers and laterals by Southern Water.
(9) In terms of flooding, Mr Luck said that Southern Water would need to help the lead Flood Authorities to develop their Flood Risk Management Strategies. These would entail flood risk assessments, plans to deal with significant flooding, hazard and risk maps and management plans.
(10) Mr Luck then turned to the topic of sustainable drainage systems (SUDS) (for surface water). He informed the Committee that the 2010 Flood and Water Management Act had amended the previous “right to connect to surface water” to enable people to insist upon sustainable surface water drainage systems. It was currently intended that KCC would be the SUDS approval body for the County with the water Companies acting as statutory consultees.
(11) The Committee asked to receive a further report at its next meeting on the implications for the County Council of the proposed SUDS approval function. At the suggestion of the Flood Risk Management Officer it was agreed that this should be incorporated within a presentation on the burdens imposed on local authorities by the Flood and Water Management Act.
(12) In response to a written question from Mr Vye, Mr Luck said that Southern Water would continue to give its attention to flooding issues in local parishes even if staff moved on.
(13) RESOLVED that the content of the presentation be noted and Mr Luck thanked for his presentation.