Update on Flood Risk Management Richard Davies, Head of Risk and Emergency Planning David Sellers, Principal Land Drainage Engineer
Outer East Area Committee 10 February 2009 Overview
● The Flood Risk Challenge in Leeds ● The Council’s approach to FRM: building blocks and achievements ● Recommendations of the Pitt Review ● How should we respond to the Pitt Review ? ● Sources of flood risk in Outer East Area ● Examples of known problem locations ● Maintenance locations ● Role for Area Committees ? The Flood Risk Challenge in Leeds
● Experts advise frequency and intensity of rainfall increasing in UK and we should expect more extreme events regularly
● In Leeds, flood risk will continue to derive from ‘main rivers’, but more frequently from becks, sewers, highway gullies as these prove unable to cope with volumes of water
● To address this risk, we need to be clear about our and others’ responsibilities, work closer with partners and invest properly in the infrastructure and services maintaining this
● NOT just about emergency response but long-term flood risk management and sustainable approaches to natural and built environments Council’s FRM Building Blocks
● Director of City Development made ‘champion’ for FRM ● Exec Board approved Policy on ‘Maintaining Water Resources and Responding to Flood Incidents’ clarifying legal responsibilities, roles of services and what gaps to plug ● WAMWG set-up in April 2005 to improve LCC’s maintenance of ‘water assets’ (becks, culverts, gullies) and response to floods. ● WAMWG membership: Risk & EP, Land Drainage, Bridges, Env’l Health, Highways, Streetscene, Recreation, Asset Mgmt, Dev’t Control, Strategic Planning, Sustainable Dev’t, Enforcement ● Detailed Action Plan in place and c. 50 key actions reviewed quarterly ● Additional £1.2m p.a. allocated to relevant services to survey and assess assets as well as enhance service provision Achievements since 2005 ● Major progress on identifying, logging and assessing of LCC drainage infrastructure: becks, culverts, drains, gullies, lakes ● Enhanced preventative/reactive maintenance of key assets and hotspots via term contracts and enhanced gully tanker fleet ● Increased Land Drainage resources to provide technical advice and undertake key works ● New prevention measures at key locations: land drains, grids ● Enhanced bilateral technical cooperation with YWS and EA ● Addressed flytipping and trolley dumping issues ● Created a West Yorks Flooding CONOPS for clarity of response ● Worked with call centre to provide clearer advice to the public ● Improved liaison between responding LCC services Pitt Review into 2007 Floods 92 recos to overhaul of FRM nationally/locally: New Act to clarify responsibility for all flood sources. LAs to lead on local FRM with support of partners. LAs to tackle local flooding problems with partners. LAs to collate/map main FRM & drainage assets, including ownership and condition. LAs to develop SWMPs to manage of local flood risk. LAs to enhance technical capabilities to deliver FRM. LAs to lead multi-agency planning & trigger responses for severe weather emergencies. LA contact centres to deal with enquiries from public during and after major flooding. Scrutiny Committees to review local FRM work and prepare annual report. Responding to Pitt Review ● Government accepted all Pitt reco’s, asking LAs to take on leadership role pre-legislation but with little additional funding ● Action Plan revised to include additional reco’s and services assessing capabilities (staff, budgets, software, plans, call-handling etc) to comply ● Key gaps are: senior co-ordination role; technical staff; lack of capital budget; cut in revenue budget; member engagement; contact centre. ● Services to complete surveys and assessment of LCC assets to clarify risks, maintenance and capital investment needs ● Develop partnership work on strategic planning (SWMP, investment, data-sharing), issue resolution, new developments, maintenance regimes ● Start development of Surface Water Management Plan using £50K DEFRA pilot funding for Wyke Beck catchment ● Collaborate with EA to fund and implement further area-specific flood defence/resilience schemes, e.g. River Aire, Wortley, West Garforth etc Sources of Flood Risk in Outer East Area This derives from multiple sources, often interacting with one another: ● ‘Main rivers’: River Aire (Allerton Bywater, Methley, Woodlesford), Wyke Beck (Dunhill Estate), Cock Beck (Stanks), unnamed culverts (West Garforth) ● ‘Ordinary’ watercourses: Kippax Beck (Ramsden Street, Kippax), unnamed culverted watercourses (West Garforth, Whitkirk Lane (Aug 2004) Swillington Lane) ● YWS public sewers: Whitkirk Lane, Valley Road (Kippax) ● Private sewers and drains ● Highway gullies and drains: Allerton Bywater ● Surface water run-off (Chantry Garth) Known Flood Risk Locations Dunhill estate (flooded in Aug 2004, May 2005 and Jun 2007)
Wyke Beck Flood Alleviation Scheme (EA) - £500K (local levy) - issues
Wyke Beck catchment Surface Water Management Plan pilot
DEFRA grant of £50K EA local levy grant of ~£20-30K
Leeds CC Yorkshire Water Environment Agency partnership
EASEL Drainage Masterplan area shown in green West Garforth flooding: above: Barley Hill Rd (Jun 2007) right: Springmead Dr (Aug 2002) WEST GARFORTH
Several improvements carried out since IUD pilot project – including culvert cleansing and CCTV, new culvert at Barley Hill Road (pictured), ew highway drainage at Ninelands Lane.
EA enmainment of some culverted watercourses. Possible EA local levy contribution to playing field storage Chantry Garth – run-off from Leeds CC open land and some flooding from YWS s.w. sewer (new ‘french drain’ and flood bund created – Oct 2008) Ramsden Street, Kippax
Flooding from Kippax Beck unable to escape via blocked grid (now on fortnightly ‘hot-spot’ schedule) Allerton Bywater (June 2007) Highway drains ‘tide-locked by washlands (managed by EA) Maintenance Locations Fortnightly clearing of trash screens
-Before and after photos at Halton Moor grid on Wyke Beck
Schedule on website Trash Screen on Cock Beck at Stanks (previously implicated in property flooding – now cleaned fortnightly): ‘before’ picture
Role of Area Committees ?
● Need to be aware of overall flood risk agenda and what we are seeking to achieve when this issue is raised.
● Consider and raise flood risk issues in relation to new developments.
● Act as our ‘eyes and ears’ through links to community: let us know about any problems before they become an issue !
● Offer support for any bids we make to either the corporate centre or external bodies in order to resolve known flood risk problems ANY QUESTIONS ?