Minutes:
Jon Yates (Pathfinder Delivery Lead) was in attendance for this item.
1. Mr Yates gave a presentation. The contents of his presentation included:
a. The Ofwat Accelerated Infrastructure Delivery Project;
b. The Clean Rivers and Seas Taskforce Accelerated Plan, which included £9m of investment in Kent targeting five overflows, delivering 1 treatment works optimised, 2 pumping station optimisations, 8 surface water misconnection redirected, 2,000 household downpipes fitted with slow the flow measures and 10 roadside sustainable drainage schemes installed. It was stated that these measures would lead to a minimum 20% reduction in spills by April 2025;
c. Optimisation at the Swalecliffe Treatment Works, which had achieve a 20% reduction in long sea outfall events;
d. Centaur Gates and the development of a programme of works to make Whitstable the first Intelligent Catchment, utilising forecast rainfall, real time network information and AI to manage the infrastructure in a different efficient way to reduce CSO usage across the catchment and 37 pumping stations;
e. Completed surface water connection works in Whitstable and Deal;
f. Planned sustainable drainage system schemes in Whitstable, Deal and Margate;
g. Slow the Flow and installation of water butts and planters in Whistable, with a future focus on targeting large industrial roof spaces;
h. Clean Rivers and Seas Regional Plan. It was confirmed that over 1,000 overflows would be investigated in the region between 2025-30 and that the Plan’s budget had increased from £750m to £1bn;
i. Members were invited to use the interactive Clean Rivers and Seas Regional Plan map, which included details on when works were planned, how much had been invested and their expected impact at www.southernwater.co.uk/water-for-life/clean-rivers-and-seas-plan/map; and
j. Confirmation that a new Beachbuoy app would be released later in Spring 2024.
2. A Member commended Southern Water on its recent response during water outages in Thanet.
3. Following a comment from a Member, Mr Yates stated that whilst Southern Water were not a statutory consultee on major planning applications, they were on local plans and worked hard with local planning authorities to be part of the conversation on planned development.
4. A Member asked to what extent major residential developments contributed to greater levels of surface water flooding. Mr Yates stated that new major developments had not significantly worsened flooding and that smaller developments contributed to a larger extent as a results of surface water run off connections into foul. He confirmed that Southern Water had worked with designers and developers to ensure that sustainable drainage systems were installed effectively. Mr Tant added that KCC had been a statutory consultee on surface water flooding for major developments since 2015 and that generally sustainable drainage systems had been used effectively and where there were legacy connections to the sewer, KCC had ensured that measures were in place to slow the flow rate or disconnect them. He noted that surface water flooding was more likely to be caused by older developments, particularly from the 1980s and 1990s, where SuDs were not used and connections to the sewer were common and where gardens had been paved and extensions added that increased the area the sewage infrastructure was initially designed for.
5. In response to a question from a Member, Mr Yates confirmed that the Beachbuoy system monitored the water quality of designated bathing areas only.
6. A Member asked whether Southern Water had met its storm overflow reduction targets and for assurance that their long plans were ambitious. Mr Yates confirmed that the two-year target to reduce storm overflows at Swalecliffe by 16% had been exceeded, with 23% achieved and that going forward a minimum 30% reduction was the target across the Whitstable catchment. He stated that it was the company’s ambition that all targets be exceeded to accelerate the reduction of storm overflows.
7. Following a question from a Member on the impact of water butts and planters, as well as the work which could be done in Tonbridge to reduce surface water, Mr Yates explained that each catchment had its own characterisitics which required bespoke solutions. He confirmed that exercises had been carried out to understand the Tonbridge catchment and that smart water butts and planters would play a part in future solutions to slow the flow in urban areas across the county.
RESOLVED to note the content of the presentation.