15 January 2008

Response to Flooding (Drainage and

Watercourses) Recommendations

Title of review Flooding (Drainage and Watercourses) Date review completed 31/07/2008 Chair of the Select Committee Yvonne Davidson Lead Scrutiny Officer Martin Gately Email [email protected] Telephone 977 2826 Total number of pages 14

Recommendation 1 (of 18) Highways gullies are emptied more frequently. Preferably, a spring and autumn clean of gullies should take place.

PART ONE to be completed two months after publication of review Response from the Cabinet Member/Executive to recommendation Date due Date provided I am currently in conjunction with other cabinet members considering the need for an additional £600,000 for gulley emptying and drain cleaning. Any additional investment will need to be targeted with gullies in areas prone to flooding having an increased cleaning frequency and other gullies being emptied once a year. The identification of the areas requiring more regular cleaning will be done in partnership with other drainage agencies such as the Environment Agency.

PART TWO to be completed three months after Cabinet Member’s response Response from the Communities Department to progress on carrying out recommendation Date due Date provided The current aim is to make more effective use of existing budgets, and to ensure that in areas prone to flooding the gullies are kept clean as well as the drainage system that the gullies connect to, in partnership with drainage agencies. Many reports of blocked gullies are due to other problems in the drainage system, and it is important that we address the wider issue including maintenance, breakages and improvements. The new electronic highway inspection system which has been recently introduced allows highway inspectors to now record blocked gullies electronically leading to the quicker cleaning of blocked gullies as well as leaving a clear audit trail. We are awaiting the outcome of a £600,000 bid for drainage cleaning monies and reviewing the impending flood risk management legislation.

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Recommendation 2 (of 18) Residents should be notified in good time when gully cleansing is due to take place so that they can avoid parking over gully drainage grates

PART ONE to be completed two months after publication of review Response from the Cabinet Member/Executive to recommendation Date due Date provided November 2008 I do not believe this to be an achievable or realistic aim given the resources that would be needed to achieve this recommendation. The resources would be better used on dealing with drainage and flooding problems.

PART TWO to be completed three months after Cabinet Member’s response Response from the Communities Department to progress on carrying out recommendation Date due Date provided November 2009 We need to use the resources available to reduce drainage and flooding problems. It is felt to be not practical or cost effective to inform residents of when gullies are being emptied. For information there are approximately 128000 gullies in the county.

Recommendation 3 (of 18) Within the Authority’s budgetary constraints, the funding and development of a capital programme of prioritised highway drainage improvements should be considered

PART ONE to be completed two months after publication of review Response from the Cabinet Member/Executive to recommendation Date due Date provided November 2008 A bid was made to create a capital drainage improvement budget funded from the County Council’s capital programme. However drainage improvements are not currently included in the County Council’s main 10 year capital programme but remain in the indicative programme.

PART TWO to be completed three months after Cabinet Member’s response Response from the Communities Department to progress on carrying out recommendation Date due Date provided November 2009 The bid for a budget for capital drainage improvements is currently being considered by members as part of the review of the entire capital programme.

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Recommendation 4 (of 18) Internal Drainage Boards should more vigorously pursue, through the legal remedies that are open to them, riparian owners who do not properly fulfill their obligations.

PART ONE to be completed two months after publication of review Response from the Cabinet Member/Executive to recommendation Date due Date provided November 2008 The Government intends to publish a draft ‘Floods and Water Bill’ for consultation in 2009 which will replace existing legislation. This follows both the Pitt Review and the Government’s long-term water strategy, ‘Future Water’ (published in February 2008).

Once the Bill has undergone Royal Assent, the legal responsibilities of riparian owners, drainage undertakers and local authorities will be addressed and actioned as necessary.

PART TWO to be completed three months after Cabinet Member’s response Response from the Communities Department to progress on carrying out recommendation Date due Date provided November 2009 There are 12 internal drainage boards operating within Nottinghamshire and each has a slightly different approach to dealing with riparian owners. The same situation occurs with the 7 district councils who deal with ordinary watercourses outside the IDB boundaries. There are proposals to merge some of the IDBs in the north of the county to form a North Nottinghamshire IDB. The Floods and Water Bill was published by the government in Spring 2009, and this if enacted gives the County Council a lead role in Flood Risk management including on ordinary watercourses.

Recommendation 5 (of 18) Internal Drainage Boards should ensure that they robustly defend their critical assets from flooding (e.g. pumps) and invest in back-up measures wherever it is viable to do so.

PART ONE to be completed two months after publication of review Response from the Cabinet Member/Executive to recommendation Date due Date provided November 2008 Nottinghamshire County Council can support the Internal Drainage Boards by providing Business Continuity advice and discussing alternative methods of resource provision, such as mutual aid.

PART TWO to be completed three months after Cabinet Member’s response Response from the Communities Department to progress on carrying out recommendation Date due Date provided November 2009 The major IDBS in Nottinghamshire such as Newark IDB have investment programmes to protect their critical infrastructure, and have made bids to the environment agency for significant funding for these improvements. The County Council continues to liaise closely with the Internal Drainage Boards via the Drainage Manager in Highways

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Recommendation 6 (of 18) In association with relevant partners, this Authority should raise awareness about the severe problems that can be caused by disposing of cooking fat down drains

PART ONE to be completed two months after publication of review Response from the Cabinet Member/Executive to recommendation Date due Date provided November 2008 Severn Trent and Anglian Water regularly notify customers about this issue. Information is included on customers’ bills and ‘fat-traps’ are freely available on request. NCC emergency planning, in conjunction with corporate communications, will liaise with Severn Trent to help raise public awareness. The effectiveness of this approach may be an issue for Severn Trent and Anglian Water to explore.

PART TWO to be completed three months after Cabinet Member’s response Response from the Communities Department to progress on carrying out recommendation Date due Date provided November 2009 The main problem with fat occurs in public sewers which are maintained by the water companies and not in the highway drains maintained by the county council. However we will continue to assist the water companies in making the public aware of this problem. Both Severn Trent water and Anglian water continue to inform the public about this problem. NCC emergency planning staff have also raised this issue at public events such as Newark Show and Ashfield Show

Recommendation 7 (of 18) This Authority should deploy temporary road signs in the approach to flooded areas warning of the severe “bow wave” effects that can result from large vehicles driving into floodwater at speed

PART ONE to be completed two months after publication of review Response from the Cabinet Member/Executive to recommendation Date due Date provided November 2008 Meetings have been held between NCC highways, emergency planning and district/borough councils to address this issue. Some parish councils are keen to establish road closures themselves during a flood. Complex legal issues, training needs and methods of communication need to be considered before this can be implemented.

PART TWO to be completed three months after Cabinet Member’s response Response from the Communities Department to progress on carrying out recommendation Date due Date provided November 2009 NCC highways will continue to deploy road signs in flooded areas to prevent people from driving through floodwater. It must be noted that poor driving conditions and the huge demand placed on highways staff during flooding can hinder the deployment of such signs in all affected areas at very early stages.

Discussions have taken place with NCC highways staff, NCC emergency planning staff, borough/district councils and the Police about the implementation of road closures by parish council representatives. However, there are a number of outstanding issues Error! Not a valid link. which need to be resolved. These include: • Identifying which representatives from parish councils or flood warden schemes are suitable for fulfilling this role • Establishing which roads are suitable for closure by community representatives • Producing documentation specifically stating the road closures and diversions in place • Examining the type of signage to be placed (e.g. electronic signs, fold-down signs) • Assessing the training needs of community representatives • Documenting the procedures for co-ordination between community representatives, the Police and highways staff • Agreeing methods of notifying the relevant organisations once the road has been closed • Authorising the re-opening of a flooded road • Identifying where signs will be stored • Investigating the legal consequences of establishing road closures (e.g. public liability insurance) • Identifying health & safety issues (e.g. heavy lifting and manual handling). • Insurance cover/liabilities

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Recommendation 8 (of 18) The owners of properties that are susceptible to flooding should put in place measures to improve the resilience of their property (e.g. floodgates and self closing airbricks) rather than rely on the delivery of sandbags

PART ONE to be completed two months after publication of review Response from the Cabinet Member/Executive to recommendation

Date due Date provided November 2008

Nottinghamshire County Council and the Environment Agency strive, wherever possible, to encourage residents at risk of flooding to purchase their own flood protection equipment. This can be achieved through attendance at public meetings, organisation of flood fairs and the publishing of information on local authority websites.

Many residents seem reluctant to install their own flood protection products. Possible reasons for this include: • Ignorance of the products available • Significant expense of installing certain products • A belief that flooding is a rare occurrence and won’t happen again • Procrastination (some members of the public may be waiting for a grant to be made available before purchasing any equipment).

PART TWO to be completed three months after Cabinet Member’s response Response from the Communities Department to progress on carrying out recommendation

Date due Date provided November 2009

The emergency planning team advise members of the public to improve the resilience of their properties. Emergency planning have attended a number of public events (e.g. Newark Show and Ashfield Show) in order to raise awareness of this issue.

Newark & Sherwood District Council have distributed free ‘aqua-sacs’ to many properties in their district. This was used as an opportunity to recommend that residents purchase more effective flood protection equipment. In addition working with the Environment Agency resilience works have been carried out to certain properties in Gunthorpe.

In June 2008, Newark & Sherwood District Council undertook a survey of 260 residents who suffered flooding in 2007. Off those that responded, 50% have taken measures to protect themselves and 35% have considered taking action.

Of those not planning to install any flood protection measures the following reasons were given: • 50% said it was too expensive • 23% were unsure of their options • 14% believe it is not their responsibility to do so.

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Recommendation 9 (of 18) Parish and District Councils should consider the strategic storage of sand bags, silicon granule bags or other alternatives as close as possible to where they are likely to be required.

PART ONE to be completed two months after publication of review Response from the Cabinet Member/Executive to recommendation Date due Date provided November 2008 Bassetlaw District Council and Newark & Sherwood District Council have installed resilience stores for many of their parishes (twelve and nine respectively).

Contents of resilience stores include sandbag trolleys, shovels, ‘aqua sacs’, empty sandbags, personal protective equipment and torches. Each parish council owns their store and is responsible for its maintenance.

• Balderton • Lowdham (x2) • Bulcote • Norwell • Carlton-on-Trent • North Muskham • Caunton • Oxton • Eakring • Rolleston • Egmanton • Southwell • Girton & Meering • South Muskham • Holme • Sutton-on-Trent • Hoveringham • Thurgaton • Kelham • Weston. • Laxton & Moorhouse (x2)

Bassetlaw District Council have provided flood resilience equipment to a number of parish councils:

• Beckingham-cum-Saundby • North Leverton with Habblesthorpe • Clarborough and Welham • North and South Wheatley • Clayworth • South Leverton • East Drayton • Sturton-le-Steeple • Hayton • Treswell • Misterton • Walkeringham.

Bassetlaw District Council also plan to provide the following parish councils with flood resilience equipment: • Carlton • Harworth • Headon-cum-Upton.

Gedling Borough council intend to provide a flood resilience store for Woodborough but there are no proposals for any of the other districts.

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Recommendation 10 (of 18) Local Authorities (and other organisations) should recognise that existing community groups (e.g. Neighbourhood Watch) may provide a valuable resource or pool of potential volunteers for flood warden-type schemes

PART ONE to be completed two months after publication of review Response from the Cabinet Member/Executive to recommendation Date due Date provided November 2008 A 'Parish Council Emergency Plan Template' has been distributed to parish councils and is also available on Nottinghamshire County Council’s website.

NCC emergency planning have just established a new 3-year post which focuses exclusively on community resilience. One of the objectives of this role is to integrate emergency planning within other community groups, not just parish councils.

In addition to this, some Environment Agency Flood Wardens are being asked to become ‘Flood and Resilience Wardens’. Such volunteers remain involved with flooding but they will also undertake further community resilience work.

PART TWO to be completed three months after Cabinet Member’s response Response from the Communities Department to progress on carrying out recommendation Date due Date provided November 2009 The emergency planning team provides support to the Environment Agency in the running of Flood Warden Workshops and recommends the scheme to any interested members of the public.

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Recommendation 11 (of 18) This Authority in association with District Authorities, the Environment Agency, Severn Trent and the Internal Drainage Boards should produce a publication clearly setting out contact details and areas of responsibility relating to flooding and what support flooded homeowners can expect

PART ONE to be completed two months after publication of review Response from the Cabinet Member/Executive to recommendation Date due Date provided November 2008 The roles and responsibilities of each organisation are freely published in plans and leaflets but not all contact details are published in one document. The public would find this beneficial but such information must be easy to update and should not duplicate any existing guidance. The Environment Agency already provides information as the lead flooding agency. Public information is also available from the National Flood Forum, Association of British Insurers and British Damage Management Association.

This will be considered further after the new Floods and Water Bill is published as it may have major implications for drainage and flooding responsibilities.

PART TWO to be completed three months after Cabinet Member’s response Response from the Communities Department to progress on carrying out recommendation Date due Date provided November 2009 There are currently over 40 different guides on flooding, published by a number of organisations: • Association of British Insurers (ABI) • British Damage Management Association (BDMA) • Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA) • Environment Agency (EA) • Health Protection Agency (HPA) • National Flood Forum (NFF).

There is clearly some merit in producing a document which unifies this information. However, due to the number of developments occurring in flood risk management and emergency planning, it would not be prudent to create such a publication at this time. The Environment Agency’s decision to alter their Flood Warning Service in 2010 is a good example of such a development.

Once major developments in flood planning have taken place and assurance is received from central Government that a national publication will not be produced, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Local Resilience Forum (LRF) will implement this recommendation. In the meantime, the emergency planning team will continue to encourage homeowners to use the guidance currently available.

Newark & Sherwood District Council recently published a document entitled ‘Fighting the floods - looking back and moving forward’. This outlines the work on flooding undertaken by Newark & Sherwood District Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, the Environment Agency, Severn Trent and Newark Area Internal Drainage Board.

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Recommendation 12 (of 18) The preparation of emergency plans by Parish Councils be recognised as good practice; and therefore parishes who have not done so should consider producing a plan and circulating it to relevant agencies and authorities

PART TWO to be completed three months after Cabinet Member’s response Response from the Communities Department to progress on carrying out recommendation Date due Date provided November 2009 The emergency planning team encourage communities to develop an emergency plan. Some of the parish councils to use the ‘Community Emergency Plan’ template include: • Headon-Cum-Lound • Hoveringham • North Leverton with Habblesthorpe • Rolleston • Shireoaks • Walkeringham.

Recommendation 13 (of 18) The Police and Fire and Rescue Services should liaise more closely with residents who have in-depth local knowledge (e.g. representatives of the Parish Council)

PART ONE to be completed two months after publication of review Response from the Cabinet Member/Executive to recommendation Date due Date provided November 2008 Parish council representatives have a very important part to play during an incident but their role must be explicitly defined and understood by all organisations involved in the response.

It will also be discussed in two training events on the LRF Flood Response Plan (taking place on 9th and 16th November).

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Recommendation 14 (of 18) This Authority co-ordinate a thorough mapping of riparian ownership within the County; collating information held by other organisations, such as Districts and Parishes and commissioning research to fill gaps in knowledge with a view to producing a definitive document that is kept up to date

PART ONE to be completed two months after publication of review Response from the Cabinet Member/Executive to recommendation Date due Date provided November 2008 The Pitt Report (specifically recommendation 15) also suggests this course of action. This does, however, involve a substantial amount of work and additional resources may be required to successfully achieve such a task.

It is also unclear which tier of local authority should take the lead; work is already underway by Bassetlaw District Council and Newark & Sherwood District Council to identify ownership of watercourses. This issue should be addressed in the Floods and Water Bill.

PART TWO to be completed three months after Cabinet Member’s response Response from the Communities Department to progress on carrying out recommendation Date due Date provided November 2009 The Floods and Water Bill suggest the county council take the lead in recording and mapping key flood assets but it is not clear on the recording of riparian ownership. However understanding and recording riparian ownership of watercourses and the ownerships of surface water drainage is a huge a task. Even on main rivers such as the Retford Beck through Retford there are key drainage assets in unknown ownership, whilst in areas such as Ollerton much of the surface water drainage is in unknown ownership. The issue has arisen from changes in local government structure over the last 50 years and the formation of the water companies. If the bill is enacted establishing and recording ownership of the drainage system will have significant implications for the county council. The implications of the flood and water bill will be reported separately to the responsible cabinet members, and suitable resources to reflect new duties will be considered at that time. We have however made significant progress on recording information on highway drainage and surface water systems and this work is ongoing.

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Recommendation 15 (of 18) Further to this mapping exercise, all riparian owners should be reminded of their responsibilities – and, as a priority riparian owners who have built structures that encroach into watercourses should be specifically approached and informed of the potentially catastrophic effect of restricting the flow of water during flash floods

PART ONE to be completed two months after publication of review Response from the Cabinet Member/Executive to recommendation Date due Date provided November 2008 Nottinghamshire County Council, in partnership with Newark Area Internal Drainage Board and the Environment Agency, already inform some riparian owners of their duties. The ‘Floods and Water Bill’ will outline the most effective means as to how local authorities should co-ordinate this work.

PART TWO to be completed three months after Cabinet Member’s response Response from the Communities Department to progress on carrying out recommendation Date due Date provided November 2009 We continue to work with the district councils IDBs and the Environment Agency on informing riparian owners of their responsibilities. District councils have the powers to force riparian owners to remove obstructions to ordinary watercourses. The development of Surface Water Management Plans will allow the identification of key blockages for legal action if necessary.

Recommendation 16 (of 18) Emergency Planning Officers carefully consider where the weak points in Nottinghamshire’s critical infrastructure would be in the event that Nottinghamshire suffers the sort of massive pluvial flooding experienced by Gloucestershire last summer

PART ONE to be completed two months after publication of review Response from the Cabinet Member/Executive to recommendation Date due Date provided November 2008 Critical infrastructure will be referred to in the LRF Flood Response Plan but more work needs to be carried out to address such a significant issue. The scrutiny committee into critical infrastructure may aid this process.

Guidance from DEFRA on the risk assessment of reservoirs will be released shortly; the LRF Community Risk Register will be updated as necessary.

PART TWO to be completed three months after Cabinet Member’s response Response from the Communities Department to progress on carrying out recommendation Date due Date provided November 2009 A Critical Infrastructure Select Committee has examined issues associated with long term loss of services and utilities in Nottinghamshire linked to weaknesses in critical infrastructure.

The LRF critical infrastructure group (chaired by Nottinghamshire County Council) are organising an event in November 2009 focusing on implementation of the Pitt Recommendations. The following organisations are attending: • Anglian Water Error! Not a valid link. • British Telecom • British Waterways • Central Networks • Highways Agency • National Grid • Network Rail • Severn Trent

The emergency planning team are involved in the planning of Exercise Diamond II; an LRF flooding exercise taking place on 8th December 2009. This aims to simulate a multi-agency response to a protracted and widespread flooding event. Part of this scenario will involve disruption to critical infrastructure.

Recommendation 17 (of 18) The Overview and Scrutiny Committee should consider a further scrutiny review of this authority’s plans for civil contingencies, especially around weaknesses in the critical infrastructure which might lead to catastrophic long term failure of utilities and the transport network

PART ONE to be completed two months after publication of review Response from the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny to recommendation Date due Date provided November 2008 The Overview and Scrutiny Committee will give consideration to this recommendation as part of the topic selection process on 15 September 2008.

PART TWO Response from the Chair of the Communities and Environment Standing Committee to progress on carrying out recommendation Date due Date provided November 2009 A review of critical infrastructure was undertaken as a response to this recommendation. A report with recommendations was presented to Cabinet in April 2009. A response to recommendations will be given by the Portfolio holder for Community Safety at November meeting of the Community and Environment Standing Committee.

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Recommendation 18 (of 18) Overview and Scrutiny Committee should receive a briefing on the implementation of the Pitt Review’s recommendations in nine months and following that determine what further scrutiny of flooding issues should be incorporated into the future work programme.

PART ONE to be completed two months after publication of review Response from the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny to recommendation Date due Date provided November 2008 The Overview and Scrutiny Committee will give consideration to further flooding matters at the meeting on 13 October 2008. The Overview and Scrutiny Committee will give consideration to a report on the Pitt Review being scheduled as part of the programme of scrutiny work.

PART TWO Response from the Chair of Communities and Environment Standing Committee to progress on carrying out recommendation Date due Date provided November 2009 Information regarding the implementation of the Pitt Review recommendations included in the Floods and Water Bill will be presented to the Committee when available.