Agenda item

(1)       Rachel Kairis from the Environment Agency began her presentation by giving the national picture. She said that following Storms Eva and Frank in 2014/15, the EA had invested £12.5m in kit such as temporary defence barriers, pumps, instant command units, and sandbagging machines.  All of this equipment was stored securely in various depots across the country. The closest depot to Kent was in Rye.

(2)       Rachel Kairis then said that the EA had made changes to its modelling and forecasting system in order to enable them to get a flood warning service to more people. The aim was to be able to enable 100% of the population to receive messages and take action.

(3)       The Environment Agency had also run an autumn flood risk campaign during the first two weeks in November in order to encourage communities to prepare for flooding events and to produce community flood plans. 

(4)       Rachel Kairis then reported on developments in Kent.  She explained that she was the Instant Ready Implementation Officer in the county, responsible for leadership in the implementation of the EA’s plans.  There were a number of themes such as Leadership and Behaviours which aimed to get 100% of the EA staff (such as Flood Support Officers and Instant Support Officers) onto a duty roll.  The current percentage figure was 501 staff which equated to 97% of Kent’s EA staff.

(5)       Another theme was Mutual Aid and Visualisation which aimed to make sure that EA staff throughout the UK followed the same practice.  In the event of a major emergency staff from all regions would be able to support those most badly affected.  At the same time, staff were now equipped with I pads so that they could relay images rapidly to the incident room.  There was a possibility that the EA in Kent would be provided with drones. It was intended that CCTV on the watercourses would become more widespread. 

(6)       Rachel Kairis said that the EA had introduced Major Incident Plans (MIPs). Three of these covered parts of the South East Area: South West Coast, East Coast and Thames.  A specific MIP was in production for London surface water. These MIPs were strategic documents for use by senior officers throughout a serious incident including the response and recovery. 

(7)       The Environment Agency was also looking into a system known as Stop and Slow.  The Incident Room in Kent had been open continuously for 3 months in 2013/14.   It had consequently been decided that it was necessary to identify the work that needed to continue during a major incident and that which could be stopped.  The dissemination of some information could also be slowed down so that the EA could continue with defence work.

(8)       Rachel Kairis concluded her presentation by describing Exercise Certus which had run from 5 to 12 October 2016. This was a national exercise which had involved 70 players from the South East Area out of over 1,000 nationally.  It had tested a number of new procedures within the Winter Ready plan.  The debriefing for this exercise was currently in progress and measures identified as a result would be implemented in the two remaining quarters of the year. 

(9)       Mr Hills said that the Government was currently re-evaluating the 1/100 and 1/200 year flood risks in response to climate change and current weather extremes.

(10)     Rachel Kairis said that the Environment Agency was constantly evaluating and updating its thresholds for flood alerts and flood warnings. Following a flooding event, they would undertake validation work, including a survey to establish whether flooding had actually occurred in those properties which had been expected to be affected. If not, the threshold would be re-assessed.

(11)     Dr Eddy asked why Rye had been chosen as the location for a depot.  He referred to the difficulty of getting to and from this location from other parts of Kent and enquired whether the EA had experienced any difficulties with this particular strategic location.

(12)     Rachel Kairis replied that she did not know the specific reason why this location had been chosen.   She then explained that planning cells had been introduced in 2013/14, enabling the EA to forecast some 5 days ahead.  As a result, they were always in a position to get kit to wherever it was required before an event occurred.

(13)      Mrs Blanford asked whether Exercise Certus had been well publicised, as it was very important to assure the public that the responsible authorities were well prepared.  Rachel Kairis replied that it had been on the television and radio news.  The nearest live deployment had been to Solent South Downs, which might have led to coverage not being as widespread in the local media as it would have been if Kent had been the  main focus.  The EA had also publicised the event on social media.

(14)     Mrs Doyle asked how much communication there was with officers from local authorities. Was local expertise being fully utilised?  Rachel Kairis replied that each local authority area had multi-agency flood plans, which described the particular issues it faced.  The EA also chaired meetings of the Severe Weather Advisory Group whenever a significant flooding event was anticipated.  These meetings included representatives from the utilities companies and the Met Office who reported on those areas that were likely to be affected. The EA would then update the local authorities on the flood risk implications in their areas, gaining in return any additional information that they would perhaps not have previously been aware of.  She stressed that it was vital to learn the lessons arising out of each incident in order that joint working arrangements could be improved.  

(15)     Mr Terry asked how much of the additional flood resilience equipment was stored in Rye.  He also asked for clarification of the final sentence in the seventh paragraph of the report. 

(16)     Rachel Kairis replied that the Rye depot had been given 32km of flood barrier in addition to the 8km they had previously held.  Further flood barrier could be provided from other sources nationally, if needed.  She then explained in respect of the Water and Environment Framework (WEM) that the EA had operatives who would help erect the mountable defences. If, however, there were multiple flooding locations, they had extra contractors who were already trained in use of the specific kit, providing extra support if required for a large scale event.

(17)     The Chairman noted that a number of authorities such Kent Fire and Rescue and Kent Police had drones. He suggested that active consideration could be given to whether organisations could share this equipment.

(18)     In response to a question from the Chairman, Rachel Kairis said that the number of staff trained nationally was 6,512. Of these, 501 were in Kent.  Training for winter readiness was continuing.

(19)     Rachel Kairis said that the EA Chairman, Sir James Bevan had recently introduced the “Think big, act early, be visible” approach which ensured that every event was considered for its reasonable worst case. Support could always be scaled back at a later stage.  It also meant that during an event the EA always had people on the ground to answer questions raised by local communities and report any new information back to the Incident Room.

(20)     RESOLVED that Rachel Kairis be thanked for her presentation and that the report be noted for assurance.