Agenda item

(1)       Mr Earl Bourner (KCC Asset Manager, Drainage, Structures and Safety Barriers) gave a presentation. The accompanying slides are contained within the electronic papers on the KCC website.

(2)       Mr Bourner opened his presentation by discussing the major impact of Climate Change.  The Winters were likely to be 2C warmer, leading to an extra 14 inches of rain which increased the risk of flooding from storms, resulting in damage to properties, businesses and infrastructure, particularly in threatening coastal towns.  Another impact of Climate Change was the variability of extreme events. The last two extreme rainfall events had not taken place in Winter but in May 2018 and June 2019.  On both occasions, these events had occurred completely unexpectedly. 

(3)       Mr Bourner continued by saying that the Environment Agency had recorded the rainfall in Snodland in June 2019 as a 1 in 256-year flood event.  Drainage systems were not designed to cope with this amount of rainfall which equated to nearly 2 months of rain in 1_½  hours.  The residents had not previously experienced any flooding for over 50 years.

(4)       Mr Bourner then addressed the question of what KCC could do to help. It was able to help residents by assisting to clear water and protect property where practically possible as the event was happening, and also after the event as part of the clear up operation in ensuring that the highway drainage asset was cleansed.  It could respond to questions and complaints from residents who wanted to know why their houses were flooding.  It investigated the drainage systems, carried out CCTV surveys, undertook root cutting, jetted the systems, cleansed the soakaways and did flood testing. It kept the highway users safe. 

(5)       Mr Bourner then provided figures to demonstrate reactive cleansing carried out since April 2019.  KCC had undertaken 4267 cleansing jobs following customer enquiries, dealt with 337 emergencies, carried out 353 CCTV surveys, cleansed 69 soakaways (at a cost of £5 – 6K each) and undertaken 321 repairs and 111 schemes.

(6)       Mr Bourner said that KCC had changed its approach to cleansing.  It now carried out pre-inspections of over 90,000 gullies on main roads in order to establish if cleansing was required.   Known flooding hot spots were cleansed twice a year on some 300 roads.  This often involved simply clearing away leaves. 

(7)       KCC had increased its budget for capital works from £3m to £5m per year to update, replace or install new drainage systems.  The number of highways engineers had doubled and KCC could roll over its capital monies into the next financial year, enabling it to design very complicated drainage systems one year and install it the next.   KCC spent £2.5m per year on drainage cleansing.

(8)       Another important part of KCC’s work was supporting multi-agency Flood Forums. These were attended by KCC Flood and Water Management Team, Highways, the Environment Agency and water companies.  They took place in communities which had been affected by flooding and played a crucial part in supporting as well as re-assuring the residents.

(9)       Mr Bourner showed the Committee a pre-inspection on scheduled cleansing in order to demonstrate that extra gullies in some of the County’s Districts amounted to over 30% of the original total.  In Dover, this percentage figure was 49%.  The additional money provided would enable KCC to clear all the gullies that required cleansing or un-jamming.   This also involved more efficient cleansing methods consisting of jetting the lines and outlets.  

(10)      Mr Bourner moved on to discuss ways in which KCC sought to educate residents.   This was important because certain areas of the County were low-lying and prone to flooding due to the topography of the land.  Houses built at the bottom of valleys would find that surface water reached the low points.  Many properties had created large driveways with no drainage facilities, taking away the grass which acted as natural soakage areas. The water generally ran onto the highway.

(11)     Mr Bourner said that KCC Highways received over 7,000 enquiries per year relating to flooding either on the highway or impacting private property.   Some of these could be very emotional.  For example, enquiries were made by families that had still not been able to return to their properties after the flooding event of June 2019.

(12)     Mr Bourner then informed the Committee of the number of drainage assets in Kent.  There were 250,000 roadside drains, 250 ponds and lagoons, 15 pumping stations and 8,500 soakaways. The tasks for KCC Highways were to maintain road safety and minimise nuisance; prevent damage to the structural integrity of the highway and maximise its lifespan; and to minimise the impact of highway water on the surrounding environment.  The time taken to respond to enquiries about these assets had reduced over the past year from 3 months to 28 days.  

(13)     Several factors were taken into consideration when KCC Highways decided how it was going to prioritise its work.  It had legal obligations in respect of disruption to the highway network, it had to fulfil KCC’s obligations in respect of road safety and internal property flooding. It also had to consider how much work was needed; whether the existing asset worked and whether it was future-proofed.

(14)      There were significant factors affecting drainage maintenance.  The infrastructure was damaged and ageing Some of it was between 30 and 40 years old. There was limited capacity to add drainage systems. There was a reliance on third party infrastructure. Water from KCC’s systems drained into Southern Water systems leading to complicated discussions over responsibility for repairs.  It was important that farmers cleared their ditches in order to reduce the land drainage damage that KCC had to respond to in order to sustain its network.  Utility companies were modernising their own infrastructure, which often led to water drainage systems being involuntarily damaged.  Road sweeping by the District Councils was insufficient and affected the gullies, which only needed a few uncleared leaves to become blocked.

(15)     Mr Bourner concluded his presentation by summarising the outcomes that KCC Highways wanted to achieve.  These were: fewer incidents of highway flooding; increased customer satisfaction and confidence; a robust defence against increased claims for damage and personal injury; roads and footways that were protected from the adverse effects of standing water; reduced disruption from carriageway flooding; and greater resilience against increasingly frequent intense rainfall events. 

(16)     Mr Pugh said that in Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey for example, KCC Highways had often been called out to clear the gullies due to flooding in the High Street following a downpour.  KCC Highways would check them and say that their systems were working properly, and that the problem originated with those owned by Southern Water. This did not help the residents as flooding was still taking place on a frequent basis. People were having to move out of their properties, and when they put their claims into KCC it took a very long time to receive a reply.  The main cause of the problem was that the gullies were undersized and old, needing replacement. He asked when and how this was likely to happen.  Mr Bourner replied that there was one particular property whose problems had taken 3 years to solve.  KCC Highways and Southern Water were due to carry out the repairs, which would also solve the problems that had caused Eastchurch High Street to flood.

(17)     Mr Bowles referred to the significant flooding event of May 2018 in Swale East.  He said that he was pleased with progress in some areas but not in others. He would use the slides provided to inform the Parish Councils in his constituency and would also meet Mr Bourner at a later stage in order to discuss his remaining concerns in detail.  He considered that whilst a great deal of work was being undertaken, there was a need for better communication to ensure that people fully understood the problems that were causing delays.

(18)    Mr Rogers said that even though gullies were being cleared more speedily than before, this work was undermined where he lived as soon as the hedge cutting season began, often resulting in the gullies becoming blocked again.  He asked whether there was any requirement on the farming community to sweep the roads after they had cut the hedges.  Mr Bourner said that most of the hedges were private.   KCC could only control what happened to those hedges that were its own property.  There was no need for a TRO for hedge cutting to take place.  The only action open to the public was to report the detritus to their District Council, who would then be able to arrange for it to be cleared away.  Individual landowners had the cost of clearance charged to them if it could be proved that they were responsible.   

(19)     Mrs Brown suggested that parishes could recruit “gully wardens” who would be able to clear minor obstructions such as leaves more quickly and only ask for KCC’s assistance if the gully continued to be blocked. This would enable KCC to concentrate on major tasks.  

(20)     Ms Guthrie said that the Kent Resilience Team was seeking to broaden the Flood Warden role into that of a Community Emergency Warden.   The intention was to ensure that the Flood Wardens did not reduce in number due to extended periods of inactivity. They would instead, become the “eyes and ears” within the community, reacting to relatively minor events such as Mrs Brown had described and taking pressure off KCC Highways.  

(21)     Mr Bourner replied to questions from Mr Rayner by saying that an electronic map detailing all the gullies in Kent was in production and would be broken up into Districts and giving cleansing dates This map would be made available on the KCC website after the Swale Inspection had taken place towards the end of the current financial year.  Hotspots were identified on plans which showed how many enquiries had been received together with any significant details.  Multi Agency meetings were taking place. They involved KCC and Southern Water amongst other partners, aiming to bring about closer working.

(22)     Mr Rayner then asked what amelioration was available when water flooded onto the roads.   Mr Tant replied that this was a matter for his Team and that it depended on the nature of the land.  Kent had a varied geography. If the land was permeable, the aim would be to make water go into the ground.  When the land was impermeable, different solutions were sought. Often, the land in question would have a historic issue, in which case, an attempt might be made to identify previous solutions.  It was proving increasingly difficult to identify easy solutions in the light of the increasing number of storm and flooding events. 

(23)     Mr Mackonochie noted the discussion about broadening the role of Flood Wardens. He said that the Borough Council supported his Parish and its community with litter picking on highways but would only do so if the speed limit was lower than 30 mph.  Mr Bourner replied that no one would be expected to pick leaves off the gullies on A Roads.   It was simply too dangerous.  The aim was to encourage Wardens to undertake such tasks on residential roads only.  

(24)     Mr Vickery-Jones referred to new roadworks funded by a developer which were being undertaken in William Street in Herne Bay.  Local people had written to KCC on many occasions to complain about the flooding but were not getting any response.  He asked who they should talk to. Mr Bourner replied that they should log the enquiry in order to have a reference number that they could refer to. This would lead to the problem being assigned to one of the Engineers in his team who would carry out investigations after establishing contact with the local residents.  He offered to look into this particular matter if Mr Vickery-Jones would like to write to him in greater detail.  

(25) RESOLVED that Mr Earl Bourner be thanked for his detailed update report and that its contents be noted.