Agenda item

To provide a basis for the Committee to consider the delivery of the Council’s statutory duties in respect of flood risk management. 

Mrs Nolan Barnes, Head of Coastal and Environmental Partnership Investments, presented a report to the Committee that outlined the delivery of the statutory duties in respect of flood risk management.

The Committee was advised of the statutory duties set out in the Flood Risk Regulations 2009, the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 and the Flood Risk Management Overview and Scrutiny (England) Regulations 2011. Mrs Nolan Barnes advised that one of the duties was to cooperate with others at risk management authorities and to share information. As part of this, Blackpool Council was part of the Lancashire Strategic Flood Risk Partnership, which reported on progress of the duties on a quarterly basis to the Environment Agency’s Regional Flood and Coastal Committee.

It was explained to the Committee that the Flood Risk Management Strategy was approved in May 2014 and was a joint strategy with Lancashire County Council. Therefore some of the actions included within the Strategy would be undertaken by Lancashire County Council.

Members noted the RAG performance table included within the report and raised questions with regards to the progress on the actions rated as being red. Mrs Nolan Barnes advised that some of the actions were due to be removed from the Action Plan as they were no longer achievable. With regards to the action to ‘Embed climate change into local flood risk management’, the Committee was advised that the Service did not currently have appropriate knowledge to determine the extent to which climate change would have an impact in Blackpool. However, Mrs Nolan Barnes provided details of plans to make use of University resources to investigate the issue further.

Mrs Nolan Barnes reported that in relation to the action to ‘Develop a Funding Strategy’, completion of the action was dependant on central government changes and that the Environment Agency Flood Defence Grant in Aid process had changed to a six year determination.

In regards to the Medium Term Action Plan, Mrs Nolan Barnes advised that a number of the actions were rated as being red as a result of either resourcing issues, or alternatively, that some actions were being undertaken with Lancashire County Council, so the completion of those actions were dependant on Lancashire County Council also completing the action.

Members raised questions with regards to relationships with other authorities and whether any opportunities to exploit the Service’s knowledge and expertise further could be made. Mrs Nolan Barnes advised that the Service was fully recompensed for the work that it completed in terms of joint working and provided an example of the fee received for being the Project Manager on the Anchorsholme Sea Defence work. Mrs Barnes considered that there was a very good working relationship in place with the Environment Agency, despite the Environment Agency’s recent negative publicity.

The Committee raised questions in relation to the Surface Water Management Plan and Mrs Nolan Barnes advised that work was required to improve the relationship with external developers in order to improve sustainability of drainage systems in new developments.

Background papers: None.