Agenda item

Mr Hills (Chairman, Flood Risk Management Committee), Tony Harwood (Resilience and Emergency Planning Manager) and Max Tant (Flood and Water Manager) were present for this item.

1.The Chairman welcomed Tony Harwood and Max Tant to the meeting.  Mr Hills introduced the report which covered work between May 2018 to November 2019. 

2.  Mr Hills praised the officer support provided by Tony and Max and set out some of the highlights from the report.  All the information discussed, and presentations received by the Flood Risk Management Committee were available online on the KCC webpage.  Mr Hills gave a short overview of the work carried out at each meeting 

3. Tony Harwood clarified that Officers provided technical advice and were pleased that there was such excellent support and understanding among the committee members on Kent Flood Risk Management Committee (KFRMC).

 4. Members thanked Mr Hills for his excellent report and update, they praised the KFRMC officers and the regular external attendees, however there was disappointment at the low attendance from others. 

5. A Member referred to paragraph 7.2 of the report – flash (or surface water) flooding.  The report set out preparations made for coastal and river flooding but flash flooding did not seem to have any obvious preparatory element.  Max Tant explained that flash flooding was very difficult to predict, these events were very localised and typically due to summer storms.  During winter flooding there was often more notice due to available information.  There was a question about mitigation there were some places that now flooded more often from rainfall events and it might be necessary to look at how this was mitigated.  However, this was very expensive and there needed to be a good benefit-cost ratio.  Tony Harwood referred to the emergency planning element to flash flooding response.    Highways drainage and surface water flooding will become more of a priority as climate change impacts grow, and there was a need to look at a range of adaptation measures. 

6. A Member commented that the report covered coastal and highways drainage, it was correct that transparency was vital and the public should be kept aware of the key issues and risks.   The Member queried the reference to ‘Map 16’ in the report and Max Tant explained that this was the name of a piece of software used by the Highways department to help collect asset data.

7. Regarding flooding on the River Medway, there was concern about planning permission given for mobile home accommodation which was not meant to be occupied all year round.  The Member asked what was the position regarding the occupants of premises when they were not meant to be occupying them?  Did the local authority have responsibility to protect people occupying in such a way?   Tony Harwood explained that protection of life and property was paramount and that all of the protection for mobile homes at Little Venice Country Park worked and all of the evacuated residents were back in their homes in time for Christmas.

9. Paragraph 5.4 referred to winter readiness and increased resources into asset management leading to reduced incidents of highways flooding.  5 or 6 years ago, Members were asked to suggest drainage hotspots in their divisions where flooding was frequent to inform the drainage management timetable.  Was this still in place?

10. Paragraph 5.8 referred to the water aquifer levels, despite all extra rain, the aquifer was still within normal ranges, what level was this on currently?   Max Tant explained that aquifers were now normal in the West of Kent and above normal in the East. 

11. Tony Harwood confirmed that KCC worked with the Environment Agency and linked with National Planning Policy Framework to work on the points raised by Members.  Referring to groundwater, in November the levels were still diminished but the wet December had changed this situation.  Tony Harwood confirmed that he would speak to Highways to get further information regarding prioritisation for highways drainage for Members.

12. A Member referred to Southern Water.  District Councils were under pressure to provide new housing developments.  Lack of wastewater infrastructure was a key limiting factor.  Was there anything that KCC could do to speed up the process with Southern Water?  In relation to surface water, new estates had SuDS (sustainable drainage systems).  There were concerns that they were not being maintained.  Who was responsible for checking and maintaining them?  Max Tant explained that there was no public body responsible for maintaining SuDS and that this this was discussed regularly at the Flood Risk Management Committee. In current planning applications, conditions were requested to include a maintenance schedule and plan, however, it was not possible to ask the planning authority to enforce maintenance.  This also relied on the maintenance company remaining in place.  KCC worked with Southern Water but sewage was outside the remit of KCC. 

13.  Referring to Highways Drainage the Member praised the team but was frustrated that it was not possible to report highways drainage issues online.  This problem needed to be addressed. 

14.  Mr. Hills reminded Members that the next meeting of the KFRMC was 9 March and that all Members were welcome to attend. 

15.  A Member asked whether officers were in discussion with Natural England regarding schemes that affected coastal areas.  It was considered that this was a great idea but the practicalities were difficult, each area needed to be looked at on its merits. 

16.  It was considered that Environment Agency thinking was evolving, referring to the regional committee KCC was the most active of all the involved counties and money given to the regional committee unlocked more money for KCC. 

17. The Scrutiny Chairman thanked the KFRMC Committee Chairman and Officers for their enthusiasm and encouraged attendance at the KFRMC meetings.  Mr Hills offered high praise for Andrew Tait who was the clerk to the KFRMC. 

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Committee note the contents of the report.