Minutes:
(1) Mr Flaherty informed the meeting that he had recently become the Resilience Director for the Channel Tunnel. He then reported on the recent CPRE Flood Conference. He said that it had engaged itself in issues such as Planning and building on Flood Plains and some of the measures that needed to be considered in the light of the need for housing. There had been a number of high level speakers such as Damien Green (MP for Ashford) and Helen Grant (MP for Maidstone and the Weald). The Conference had been well received and well attended but had taken place in isolation from many of the agencies that had carried out work in the County.
(2) Mr Flaherty went on to update the Committee on other significant events that had recently taken place. Exercise Wade had been held on 9 December 2014 at the Tonbridge and Malling Council Offices. This had been a Resilience Forum table top exercise to try out all the changes that had been made to the various Plans and procedures as a result of the previous winter’s experience. Following this exercise, both the Pan-Kent response and the Recovery Plan were being reviewed.
(3) A joint seminar had been funded by Defra for the East Kent Flooding Groups. This involved the Resilience Forums from Kent and Essex working together to discuss East Coast flooding. The outcome of this seminar was that it would lead to closer working between the two Resilience Forums. Examples of this would be joint training, joint exercising and harmonisation of procedures.
(4) Mr Flaherty then said that the Kent resilience Team had drafted an Animal Evacuation and Shelter Plan which was currently going through the consultation stage within the Kent Resilience Forum. It was expected to be operational by the time of the next meeting of the Committee in July 2015.
(5) Mr Vickery-Jones said he had attended the South East Architects presentation. This had mainly focussed on anti-social behaviour but had also discussed designing out flooding. He added that he had attended the CPRE Conference and had been left asking the question why there was no great emphasis on designing properties to withstand flooding issues. He believed that the best solution for new development was to design it to be flood-resistant rather than by seeking to build perimeter defences that would require a long term maintenance commitment. This was particularly important given Canterbury CC’s recent experiences where Planning Inspectors had overturned the Council’s refusal of developments on flood plains.
(6) Mr Pearman said that in the Kent Fire and Rescue Service had performed an absolutely invaluable task in Edenbridge during the 2013/14 flooding events. Although the river had not overflowed, the town had been flooded by standing water. This effort had been hindered because the Edenbridge Depot had undergone a staffing crisis making it impossible for anyone to be deployed from there. If there had been severe weather in 2014/15, the Edenbridge Unit would not have been operational. He said that no one should underestimate the reassurance to the community that uniformed Fire and Rescue staff could provide in times of flooding. Fortunately, the Unit was expected to become operational again in April 2015 once all the volunteers had completed the necessary training. He believed that any reductions in staffing levels or redeployment needed to be communicated to the Kent Resilience Forum itself.
(7) Mr Harwood said that a key issue was the need to avoid complacency. Resilience and preparedness needed to be increased year-on-year by refining emergency planning and response, improving engineering solutions and enhancing spatial and planning management and practice. He then informed the Committee of a multi-agency off-site emergency planning exercise that was taking place for the Dungeness B Nuclear Power Station. The scenario would be a focused around severe weather/tidal flooding event, and would involve some 200 participants.
(8) Mr Flaherty said that it was not the case that the appliance at Edenbridge was not operationally available. Most of the pumps in Kent were crewed by on-call staff and were utilised when needed on the basis of risk data. Staffing issues at some stations were being addressed. Kent Fire and Rescue’s stations were strategically located around the County and were not for the exclusive use of the village in which they were based. He said that the Committee could be re-assured that the Service would always be able to meet the need to place sufficient staff in any location where they were needed. Kent Fire and Rescue also had arrangements with each of its neighbouring counties to provide or receive cross-border support. All the appliances that the Service needed were available for deployment whenever the need arose.
(9) Mrs Brown underlined Mr Harwood’s point about the need to avoid complacency. Whist she had nothing but the highest praise for the work of the EA and Kent Fire and Rescue, there was a limited number of staff to carry out all the necessary tasks. Each community needed to avoid the pitfall of over-reliance on these Services. They needed to ensure that the necessary plans and individual property plans were in place, and that seemingly insignificant issues such as the availability of operational mobile phones and chargers were addressed.
(10) RESOLVED that the report be noted.