Agenda item

a)    Joint Report of the Director of Transformation and Partnerships and the Corporate Director of Regeneration and Local Services

b)    Presentation by John Reed, Head of Technical Services and Simon Longstaff, Drainage & Coastal Protection Manager

The Committee considered the Joint Report of the Director Transformation and Partnerships and the Corporate Director, Regeneration and Local Services that provided Members with an update on the recommendations contained within the Flooding Scrutiny Review published in September 2014 (for copy of report, see file of minutes).

Members received a presentation from the Head of Technical Services and the Drainage and Coastal Protection Manager that focused on the following:-

·       Schemes for 2016/17

·       Review for 2015/16

·       Going Forward

·       Medium Term Investment Plan 2015-2021

·       Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS)

·       Going Forward

·       Schemes Completed, Witton Gilbert, ‘O’ Cobblers Hall and A167 Honest Lawyer

The Chairman congratulated Su Jordan on the shortlisting of the Civil Contingencies Unit Team for a Local Government Chronicle award in the Community Involvement Category for ‘An altogether community approach to flooding’.

Members were advised by the Senior Policy Officer, Spatial Policy that the County Durham Plan would be discussed at Cabinet on 14 December 2016. The plan coveres a number of policies which are evidence based including the Water Management Policy which had been informed by the updated Strategic Flood Risk Assessment and Water Cycle Study.

In relation to the work of the Civil Contingencies Unit Members were advised that they continue to visit schools, held drop in sessions in rapid response flood areas and worked with youth groups including the RainWorks project with Shildon Youth Group and have ran the Duke of Cornwall Community Safety Award with a number of youth organisations. They had done some practical work with students which included visiting a fire station and a caravan site which had been flooded. They were looking to go into schools to use art as media and flooding as the subject; they had good engagement with schools and were pleased that they had been shortlisted for the award.

Northumbrian Water commented that they had an excellent working relationship with the risk management team and with spatial policy and they were pleased to provide support to both teams. In relation to the Water Management Policy (formerly Policy 46) this is seen as an example of best practice and is being used by other authorities within the region.

Mr T Batson commented that the preventative measures in the presentation were excellent and asked what was happening in relation to preventative measures in Tow Law.

Officers responded that planning had been strengthened, where new homes are to be built in areas which had recognised flood risk, with robust processes in place for developers as part of the planning process. The emerging Water Management Policy is clearer in its requirements that the national guidance. The Drainage Team are also consulted on planning applications and where flooding does occur flood prevention work is undertaken to mitigate flood risk. In addition, Durham County Council, Northumbrian Water and the Environment Agency work in partnership to develop schemes that mitigate and reduce flood risk as well as look at catchment wide solutions to alleviate flood risk from a number of sources.

Councillor May referred to the 11 comments received on the Local Flood Risk Management Strategy consultation and sought clarification if these were from partners. Officers responded that they had received some comments from Northumbrian Water but the majority were from members of the public.

Resolved: That the contents of the report be noted.