Agenda item

Joint Scrutiny into Flooding - Report of Final Recommendations

Meeting of Overview and Scrutiny, Wednesday, 4th February, 2009 7.00 pm (Item 154.)

To consider the final report and recommendations from the Worcestershire Joint Scrutiny into Flooding Task and Finish Group.

(Report attached)

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed the Chair of the Worcestershire Joint Scrutiny into Flooding Task and Finish Group, Councillor Martin King, and Mr John Jordan, the Democratic Services Manager from Worcestershire County Council. He informed members that they were attending the meeting of the Committee to present the Group’s final report and recommendations.

The Chair of the Task and Finish Group explained that the Group had been established following the flooding that had affected Worcestershire and other parts of the country in July 2007. The main aim of the review had been to assess the responses of various agencies during the floods and actions that could be taken to improve responses in the future. He informed Members that the review had also had the broader remit of assessing appropriate arrangements for responding to other emergencies.

The Group had also analysed ways to empower people at the local level to act constructively during such emergencies. They had recognised that local empowerment would be significant in the event of an emergency as local people were likely to know where essential resources were located and might be available more quickly to assist people adversely affected by the situation than the emergency services.

The Chair of the Group explained that they had received some positive news during the course of their review. In particular, they had been impressed by suggestions from the local press. Representatives of the press had suggested that in such an emergency there should be one overarching reporter disseminating information about the situation across the County, as this would be less time consuming and less confusing than requiring emergency response teams to liaise with separate press offices.

During the course of the review the Group had interviewed representatives of a number of relevant organisations. A number of these organisations revealed that they had or would be undertaking reviews of their performance during the floods and actions that they could take to improve their responses during future emergencies.

The Chair of the Group explained that responses to emergencies were dealt with in accordance with the Civil Contingencies Act, which applied to areas coterminous with the area covered by the local West Mercia Police authority: Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire. The Group had discovered that one problem with this arrangement was that not all of these areas had been equally affected by the flooding and they felt that there may therefore have been some reluctance to treat the situation as an emergency as quickly as might have been appropriate. The Group had concluded that in future there needed to be greater recognition that an emergency did not need to affect all areas for the civil contingency powers to be used.

Members discussed the potential benefits of joint working arrangements when responding to emergencies. They noted that during the floods in 2007 Officers from Redditch Borough Council living in other parts of the County had helped Councils in neighbouring authorities with their recovery efforts. However, this arrangement had been organised after the event and the Chair of the Group suggested that it might be useful for all authorities to be aware at all times of Council staff who could be invited to help neighbouring authorities.

Members discussed the monitoring arrangements that had been agreed by the Task and Finish Group to help assess responses to the Group’s recommendations. The Chair of the Group explained that the Group would be re-forming in late 2009 to evaluate the responses to their recommendations. They had already reported their findings before the Overview and Scrutiny Committees at other local authorities within Worcestershire. Following these presentations Worcestershire County Council’s Emergency Planning Group had undertaken to review the content of the report and the implications for their own work on preparing for local emergencies. The Emergency Planning Group was scheduled to report its findings before the Wychavon District Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee at a later date.

Members questioned whether the central utility networks had been interviewed as part of the review process, on the basis that emergency events could potentially impact on electricity and gas supplies. The Chair of the Group explained that the Group had not interviewed representatives of the central networks mainly as a result of the time constraints involved in the review process.

Members commented that ensuring the continuity of businesses in this type of emergency situation had also not been assessed as part of the review. They noted that it might be appropriate for the Economic Development Advisory Panel to assess this subject in further detail.

Members discussed paragraphs 7.34 – 7.37 of the final report and were particularly interested in the suggestion that each District Council should have a suitably qualified Officer in position to advise district Planning Committees about drainage issues and the flood risk implications for each development. The Chair questioned whether this could leave Councillors who served on the Planning Committee liable for compensation claims. However, it was noted that developers were required to incorporate a flood alleviation strategy into any application for a development that would be built on a flood plain. This Flooding Alleviation Strategy was then considered by Councillors when assessing whether to award planning permission for that development.

The Chair of the Group explained that the Worcestershire Land Drainage Partnership had been conducting some excellent work to address flooding issues. The partnership approach ensured that there was a co-ordinated response to drainage issues within the County. The Partnership was also driving best practice across the County as it encouraged Officers from different local authorities to share knowledge. This was considered particularly appropriate for an issue that tended to affect local areas without regard to local authority boundaries.

Members agreed that the recommendations contained within the report were suitable for approval. The Chair noted, however that there were a number of implications, both in terms of requirements from Officers and in terms of the financial costs that might be involved in implementing the recommended actions. He therefore suggested that the report should be considered by a working party of relevant Officers, who would be required to report their findings before the Executive Committee, alongside the Group’s final report, at a later date.

Councillor Chalk, the Redditch Borough Council representative who had served on the Group noted that during the course of the review he had developed greater familiarity with emergency planning arrangements. Members agreed that it would be useful for all Members to receive further information about emergency planning. They therefore requested that an all Member emergency planning training session be offered at the Council.

The Chair thanked Councillor Martin King and Mr John Jordan for attending the meeting.

RECOMMENDED that

1) a working party of relevant Officers assess the implications of the Worcestershire Joint Scrutiny into Flooding final recommendations for Redditch Borough Council;

2) the working party of Officers present the Task and Finish Group’s final recommendations at a meeting of the Executive Committee alongside their comments;