Agenda item

1.            Mr Harrison introduced the Flood Risk Management Committee’s Annual Report, commenting that he grateful to the officers for producing such a good document.  Mr Harrison explained that Mr Tait, the Committee Clerk, was unable to attend.  Mr Harrison commented on the excellent work and support Mr Tait provided to the Committee.  Mr Harrison summarised the work undertaken by the Committee in 2014/15, stating that it had conducted two site visits and held three meetings.  He then invited the attending officers to update the Scrutiny Committee further.

2.            Mr Harwood, Resilience Manager, explained that the work undertaken by the committee could be viewed as responding to a year of two halves.  The first area focused on was that of the Member oversight role – debriefing on very bad weather conditions experienced in the winter of 2013/14.  This featured advising Members on the lessons learned and what action the Resilience Team had taken to ensure the relevant actions were completed as a result.  The second area of focus was how best to move on from the 2013/14 winter.  This featured innovation work undertaken and considered by the committee; Coastal Flooding, livestock care improvements (including an Evacuation guide for livestock) and notably the ‘what to do in an emergency’ guidebook that was developed to ensure communities would be better able to respond to future extreme weather situations.

3.            A Member commented that the flood defence work undertaken in Sandwich was an excellent development. Mr Harrison advised the Committee that Sandwich had won three awards for civic engineering in relation to the flood defence work.

4.            Responding to a question from Members about the Yalding flood barrier, Mr Tant explained that the Environment Agency had committed to assist in funding development for Yalding flood defences with an expected eight year project term (three years of project development and risk analysis followed by five years construction implementation).  KCC would be contributing £205k toward the project, on which a full report was expected in late summer 2015.  Mr Tant explained that the Environment Agency was still working on the analysis but the complexity of the subject made it a lengthy process.

5.            Members praised the work of the Resilience Forum in developing the emergency guidance leaflet and asked whether there were further plans to publicise the ongoing flood risk mitigation work.  Mr Harrison agreed that the Resilience Forum had done an excellent job and asked that Members promote the Forum in their divisions.  Mr Harrison also highlighted that the Regional Flood Defence Committee would be meeting at County Hall on the 29^th July 2015.

6.            In response to a Member question relating to drainage investment and works, the Chairman invited Mr Balfour, as Cabinet Member for Environment & Transport, to join the meeting.  Mr Balfour explained that drainage work was ongoing, with a constant flow of issues that needed addressing.  He clarified that this was normal business and to be expected of such a broad service that is vulnerable to uncontrollable external factors, such as the weather.  However KCC was committed funding ongoing work to maintain the drainage system.

7.            Members engaged in discussion with Mr Balfour, Mr Harrison and Officers regarding details of the minutes from previous Flood Risk Management Committee meetings.  The specific details requested by Members were not readily available and fell outside the remit of the Committee.  Mr Balfour requested the Members contact him outside of the meeting with details of their concerns.

8.            A Member commented that the Flood Risk Management Committee did excellent work and was particularly pleased that Members were now updated regularly on progress and year round work.  The Member suggested that future Annual Reports feature a more detailed paper outlining action taken by the Committee and should not include minutes of their meetings.  Mr Harrison agreed that this would done in future, clarifying that as the Flood Risk Management Committee engages with partners, many issues recorded in their minutes are not within the remit of KCC or his committee and subsequently referred.  Mr Balfour advised that Committee that examples of this included drainage works that were considered by the District Joint Transportation Boards with relevant reports also considered by the Environment and Transport Cabinet Committee.

9.            Responding to a question relating to Highways receiving 3,500 complaints a year, Mr Balfour explained that many of these would actually be fault notifications which should be considered differently.  He reiterated the point that any large system would have minor faults due to continuous use and wear and tear.  Mr Balfour noted that while some of the 3,500 may be formal complaints; this number represented a tiny proportion of all the contact received from public received by Highways, approximately 1%.

RESOLVED that the Committee thank Mr Harrison and Officers for attending; that the Committee note the Flood Risk Management Committee’s Annual Report; that the report format be amended in future to include a more detailed report and not minutes from committee meetings.  The Chairman also highlighted the Committee’s gratitude to Mr Balfour for joining the committee discussion to respond to questions.