Lancashire and Blackpool Local Flood Risk Management Strategy 2014 - 2017 2 For more information about the Lancashire and Blackpool Flood Risk Management Strategy please contact: Flood Risk Management Teams Lancashire County Council PO Box 78 County Hall Fishergate Preston Lancashire PR1 8XJ [email protected] Blackpool Council Town Hall Blackpool FY1 1AD [email protected] 3 (Lancashire County Council and Blackpool Executive Summary Council are the Lead Local Flood Authorities and throughout this strategy will be referred This Lancashire and Blackpool Flood Risk to as ‘the councils’). Our close proximity to Management Strategy has been jointly each other means that in many instances we produced by Lancashire County Council and work together to manage developments, wider Blackpool Council to show how we intend to strategic infrastructure and issues such as manage the risk from local sources of flooding flooding and water quality. initially over the next 3 years and with revised Due to the cross border nature of flooding editions every 6 years. Local sources of and the on-going relationship we have, flooding, are those from ordinary watercourses there are many benefits in working closely (small streams and channels), pluvial (surface with each other to manage local flood risks water runoff as a result of heavy rainfall) and and a decision was made to produce a joint groundwater (where water held beneath the document, the Lancashire and Blackpool ground reaches the surface). Local Flood Risk Management Strategy (the ‘Local Strategy’). This strategy ensures a Water does not follow administrative catchment based approach and promotes boundaries. During a flood event water flows effective partnership working as advised by the where it wants to and natural catchments principles laid out in the Environment Agency’s can channel water from one council’s area to National Strategy. another. Blackpool Council and Lancashire County Council share a border with each other This Local Strategy is an important policy and there are several catchments that flow from document because it is the first one that we Blackpool’s administrative area into Lancashire have produced following the introduction of and vice versa. the Flood and Water Management Act (2010). The Act places a number of legal duties It is also important to note that this does not and responsibilities on county and unitary just apply to the Lancashire and Blackpool authorities, which are now defined as Lead administrative areas. Lancashire and Blackpool Local Flood Authorities. can be affected by water from catchments outside of both of our administrative Whilst some of these duties and responsibilities boundaries and water from our catchments are existing, many of them are new and require areas can affect other areas. It is therefore us to develop new approaches, systems and important that information is shared beyond policies. This document explains how we intend administrative boundaries. to do this. However, we realise that in order to successfully manage local flood risks we will We also have a good relationship in terms need to work closely with other organisations of the wider Flood Risk Management roles responsible for managing flood risk from other we have as Lead Local Flood Authorities 4 sources of flooding such as the Environment who is responsible for managing the various Agency (main rivers and the sea) and Water types of flooding and how we intend to meet Companies (sewers). our obligations. Throughout the document we present a number of ‘strategic objectives’ We will also have to work with Local Planning that explain what we are aiming to achieve. Authorities within Lancashire to ensure that new In support of these we also include specific development is safe from the effects of flooding ‘measures’ which show how we intend to and does not increase the risk of flooding. achieve our objectives. Finally, these are Finally, we will have to work closely with the presented as an ‘Action Plan’ which states how community as a whole as we will not be able and when we will deliver and implement these to prevent all future flooding. No matter how measures. much planning and work we do, there will still be a risk of flooding and communities will need As this is a draft document, you are in a to be involved in what we do and guide our position to influence our Action Plan and we approach. hope you will take this opportunity to get involved in flood risk management activities in Within this Local Strategy we explain the your area. nature of local flood risk across Lancashire, 5 Contents Executive Summary 3 1 Introduction 1.1 Background 8 1.2 The Flood and Water Management Act 8 1.3 The Local Flood Risk Management Strategy 9 1.4 A Joint Local Strategy 10 1.5 Other Sources of Flooding 10 1.6 Our Vision for Local Flood Risk Management 11 1.7 Objectives and Measures of the Strategy 11 1.8 Structure of this Document 12 2 Roles and Responsibilities for Managing Flood Risk 14 2.1 The Lead Local Flood Authority 14 2.1.1 Existing Duties and Responsibilities 14 2.1.2 New Duties and Responsibilities 15 2.2 The Environment Agency 15 2.3 Water Companies 16 2.4 The Highway Authorities 16 2.5 Earby and Salterforth Internal Drainage Board 17 2.6 The District Councils 17 2.6.1 Coastal Protection Authorities 17 2.7 Other Organisations that Have a Role 18 2.8 Partnership Working 18 2.8.1 Our Strategic Objectives for Roles and Responsibilities 20 3 Local Flood Risk within Lancashire 22 3.1 Introduction 22 3.2 Existing Local Flood Risks 24 3.2.1 Local Flood Risk in the West of Lancashire 24 3.2.2 Local Flood Risk in the East of Lancashire 24 3.3 Flood Risk by Local Authority 25 3.4 Future Risk from Local Sources of Flooding 29 3.4.1 Climate Change 29 3.4.2 Urban Growth and Development 30 3.5 Our Strategic Objectives for taking account of Climate Change 30 6 4 Our Local Flood Risk Management Plan 32 4.1 Introduction 32 4.2 Prioritising Our Actions 34 4.3 Strategic Level Investigations & SWMPs 34 4.4 Flood Risk Management Studies by Others 35 4.4.1 Environment Agency Studies 35 4.4.2 Water Companies 35 4.4.3 Coastal Local Authorities & the Environment Agency 35 4.5 Interactions 35 4.6 Flood Investigations 35 4.7 Our Strategic Flood Risk Management Planning Objectives and Measures 36 5 Emergency Planning 38 5.1 Introduction 38 5.2 Who Does What? 38 5.2.1 The Local Authority 38 5.2.2 The Emergency Services 39 5.2.3 Community Self Help 39 5.2.4 The Environment Agency 40 5.2.5 The Met Office & Flood Forecasting Centre 40 5.3 What Can Communities Do? 40 5.4 Our Strategic Objectives and Measures for Emergency Planning 42 6 Spatial Planning and Sustainable Drainage 43 6.1 Spatial Planning 43 6.1.1 Introduction 43 6.1.2 Current Planning Guidance 43 6.1.3 How we are Addressing the Situation 45 6.2 Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) 45 6.3 Our Strategic Objectives and Measures for Spatial Planning and SuDS 46 7 Communication and Engagement 47 7.1 Our Strategic Objectives and Measures for Communications and Engagement 47 8 Asset Management 49 8.1 Introduction 49 8.2 Asset Register 49 8.3 Designation 49 8.4 Enforcement 50 8.5 Our Strategic Objectives and Measures for Asset Management 50 7 9 Resourcing and Funding of Local Flood Risk Management 52 9.1 Funding 52 9.1.1 Funding Currently Available 52 9.1.2 How We Will Seek Additional Funding 52 9.2 Our Strategic Funding Objectives 54 10 Environment and Sustainability 56 10.1 Introduction 56 10.2 Relevant Legislation and Directives 57 10.3 Strategic Environmental Assessment 57 10.4 Our Strategic Environmental and Social Objectives and Measures 58 11 Locally Important Issues 61 11.1 Introduction 61 11.2 Sustainable Drainage Systems and Water Quality 61 11.3 The Rural Economy 62 11.4 Innovation 62 11.5 Our Strategic Local Objectives and Measures 63 12 Moving Forward – Implementing and Reviewing our Strategy 64 12.1 Introduction 64 12.2 Accountability 64 12.2.1 Reviewing Our Progress 64 12.2.2 Accountability of Other RMAs 64 12.2.3 Accountability to the Public 65 12.3 How Long will this Strategy be Relevant? 65 12.4 Our Action Plan 65 12.4.1 Strategic Theme - Roles and Responsibilities 68 12.4.2 Strategic Theme - Understanding Risk 70 12.4.3 Strategic Theme - Funding 70 12.4.4 Strategic Theme - Communication and Involvement 73 12.4.5 Strategic Theme - Sustainable Flood Risk Management 74 Abbreviations 76 Glossary 77 Appendix One Risk Management Authorities 82 8 1 Introduction Following this flood event, the government This section of the report explains why we appointed Sir Michael Pitt to undertake a full have written the Lancashire and Blackpool independent investigation into the flooding Flood Risk Management Strategy and what we that occurred. This included a review into hope it will achieve. the role of the organisations involved in the management of flood risk. 1.1 Background The wide-scale flooding that occurred in the The report, ‘Lessons Learnt from the 2007 summer of 2007 caused devastation across Floods,’ (also known as the Pitt Review) made large areas of northern and central England a number of recommended changes to the and south Wales. way we manage flood risk in England. These recommendations included a greater role for It is estimated that the flooding affected 55,000 Local Authorities, particularly in managing homes and business and resulted in nearly flood risk from local sources (see Box 1.1).