Agenda item

(1)       Mr Harwood introduced his report by saying that since publication of the agenda papers, the number of Met Office Weather Warnings had risen from 45 to 47 between November 2020 and March 2021.   Consequently, the table in Appendix 2 should be amended so that there were 6 Warnings for Fog and 5 different events. Likewise, the number of Warnings for Wind had increased to 6 in 5 different events.  This meant that the number of severe weather warnings was almost identical as for the same period in the previous year.

(2)       Mr Harwood then said that the most significant events of the period had been the very dry November. There had been no alarms until the week of Christmas 2020 with the arrival of Storm Bella bringing high winds and heavy rain.  This had coincided with the Covid19 testing requirements, the suspension of sailings of freight to Calais and Boulogne as well as the problems at Manston where the lorry drivers had been stranded over the festive period.

(3)       Mr Harwood turned to the precautionary evacuation which had taken place at Little Venice on 27 December. The co-operation between the various agencies as well as the owner and manager of the Park had worked smoothly.  

(4)       The Medway Confluence Partner Group had met during the festive period, working very well together to deploy sandbags. They had also been particularly successful in terms of clean-up and recovery interventions.   This had involved the heavily silted drainage infrastructure.

(5)       Mr Harwood said that there had been significant surface water flooding in January in sporadic locations across the entire county of Kent; from Edenbridge to Sheerness in the West to Alkham in the East.   This had impacted on winterbournes such as the Nailbourne at Barham and the Drellingbourne in Alkham Valley.  

(6)       There had been highway flooding at Boughton Monchelsea where KCC Highways had worked very proactively in deploying pumps and tankers in order to clear the water before it could affect property.  The community had also been proactive in alerting the agencies to the dangers at an early stage.   The Boughton Monchelsea PC meeting, which Mr Harwood had attended following the event, had also provided important feedback.

(7)       Mr Harwood continued by saying that Storm Darcey had brought persistent and occasionally heavy snow to the county on 7 and 8 February. No flooding had occurred, but there had been widespread disruption to the Medway Valley Line and to both the strategic and local highway networks including the A229 at Bluebell Hill and the A249 at Detling.  

(8)       Mr Harwood concluded his introduction by referring to his report to the previous meeting.  Events had transpired as anticipated in that report.  It was likely that the next few months would be a quieter period in terms in respect of severe weather impacts.

(9)       Mrs Brown said that she and David Goff (Chair of Collier Street PC) had worked closely together during an unusual period which had seen the local villages affected by different floods instead of experiencing them at the same time as was normally the case.  She then expressed the concern, which Mr Goff shared, over the number of alerts and warnings issued.  This resulted in the local population reacting with insufficient urgency on those occasions when a significant event occurred.  The EA issued flood alerts as a notification to farmers to move their livestock, but local people were treating them as false alarms. She and Mr Goff had arranged to discuss this with the EA to see what steps could be taken to overcome this problem.  This could involve a reduction in the number of alerts or a publicity campaign to explain the purpose of the flood alerts. 

(10)      Mr Harwood said that he would also discuss this with the Environment Agency.  There had been significantly fewer alerts in Yalding and Collier Street over the winter than in that of 2019/20.  Flood alerts were often necessary even when no damage to properties was expected because of the potentially significant impact on the highways network.  There had been quite a few road closures in the Yalding/ Collier Street area during the winter, and alerts had been important for the blue light services, particularly ambulances. 

(11)     Mrs Brown said that the problem with the alert system was that each one of them was received in every part of the river Beult.  This contrasted with the Warnings which were far more locally focussed.

(12)     Mr Harwood referred to paragraph 2.5 of the report which set out that there had been 91 Flood Alerts and 26 Warnings since November 2020 which represented a considerable reduction from the 147 Flood Alerts and 44 Warnings for the same period in 2019/20. 

(13)     The Chairman said that he hoped that the discussions between the Parish Councils and the EA would result in the alerts being better targeted and more clearly expressed. 

(14)     RESOLVED that the warnings received since the last meeting of the   Committee be noted.