Flood Liaison Group
Monday 20 October 2014 6.00 pm
ROYAL BOROUGH FLOOD FORUM
20th OCTOBER 2014
18.00 TOWN HALL MAIDENHEAD
MINUTES
| Present |  | |
| Cllr Jesse Grey (Chair) | JG | Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead Councillor |
| David Perkins (part) | DP | Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead |
| Ben Smith | BS | Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead |
| Simon Lavin | SL | Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead |
| Harry Clasper | HC | Chair of Parish Flood Liaison Group |
| Martin Coker | MC | Parish Flood Liaison Group |
| Fiona Hewer | FH | Parish Flood Liaison Group |
| Ewan Larcombe | EL | Parish Flood Liaison Group |
| Ian Thompson | IT | Parish Flood Liaison Group |
| Andrew Davis | AD | Parish Flood Liaison Group |
| Jevan Laxen | JL | Thames Water |
| Gary Trussler | GT | Thames Water |
| Jeanne Capey | JC | Environment Agency |
| Boni Azeh | BA | Environment Agency |
| ITEM | DESCRIPTION | ACTION |
| Welcome & Introductions | |
| JG welcomed everyone to the Town Hall at Maidenhead and asked everyone to introduce themselves. | |
| | |
| 1.0 | Apologies | |
| 1.0 | Hilary Murgatroyd Thames Water Bob Cunningham Thames Water | |
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| 2.0 | Minutes of Previous Meeting (Accuracy) | |
| 2.1 | Agreed as a true record. | |
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| 3.0 | Actions from previous meetings | |
| 3.1 | Point 3.1 - Tour of Battle Bourne Scheme undertaken. HC stated that this had been very good / worthwhile | Complete |
| 3.2 & 3.3 | Point 3.2 and 3.3 - relating to Thames Water actions to address issues in East Datchet. Meeting held, with representatives from Datchet Parish Council, the Borough and the EA to discuss possible flood defence works in Datchet. Multi agency meeting to discuss issues relating to operation of the sewer system in Datchet still to be set up. | DP |
| 3.4 | Point 3.4 - FH reported that development of the parish council’s website bringing together live information on flooding had been painfully slow. DP explained that development of this website had been taken on by the Borough’s IT Team and that the user specification had been agreed some time ago. FH / MC however stated that little progress appeared to have been made. BS agreed to add this project to the “tracker” being used to monitor flood risk management activities and to ensure that it was progressed | BS |
| 3.5 | Point 3.5 - It has been agreed that meetings that would previously have been held in December should be held in January in future. HC requested schedule of next 2 or 3 meetings | BS / SL |
| 3.6 | Point 3.6 - Posting of agenda and minutes of Borough Flood Forum meetings, minutes of Regional Flood and Coastal Committee meetings and minutes of River Thames Scheme meetings on Borough website. Relevant documents are now posted on the flooding information page on the Borough website | BS / SL |
| 3.7 | Point 4.1 - Debriefs following the last winter’s floods / re-write of Borough Flood Plan / Community Flood Plans – to be covered within agenda | |
| 3.8 | Point 4.2 - Public consultation relating to Borough Local Flood Risk Management Strategy – to be covered as part of agenda | Complete |
| 3.9 | Point 5.5 – EA to respond to points raised by EL relating to Clive Onions recommendations regarding the operation of the Jubillee River, and the vertical scaling of the telemetry plots for the Jubilee River offtake. Response outstanding. | JC |
| 3.10 | Point 5.7 – Update on River Thames scheme – to be covered as part of agenda | |
| 3.11 | Point 5.10 – Reinstatement of the bund at The Populars in Southlea Road. BA stated that the EA had now issued formal flood defence consent for the reinstatement of this bund. However a site visit undertaken by BA and IT on 17th October 2014 had revealed that works being undertaken on site were not in accordance with this consent. The EA will write to the land owner’s agent pointing out that any works undertaken must be in accordance with the issued flood defence consent. The EAs position however is that they still cannot enforce reinstatement of the bund. IT asked whether reinstatement of the bund required planning permission and whether a planning application had been submitted. IT also asked that Datchet Parish Council be kept informed on progress on reinstatement of the bund and BA agreed to keep the Parish updated. JG also stated that he would raise the issue of enforcement of the reinstatement of such defences, as an urgent matter of principle, at the next RFCC meeting (in his role as Berkshire representative on the RFCC) | JC / BA JG |
| 3.12 | Point 5.13 – EA Operations Team to contact Cookham Parish Council regarding maintenance works on Strand Water, White Brooke, and the Maidenhead ditch - outstanding | EA |
| 3.13 | Point 5.14 – EA to respond to Cookham Parish Council regarding the re- profiling of to the watercourse crossing North Town Moor (York Stream?) - outstanding | EA |
| 3.14 | Point 6.1 – Provision of sealed manhole covers at Shepherds Lane, Hurley – no update available at meeting. TW agreed to provide update for circulation following meeting | TW |
| 3.15 | Point 6.1 – Letter to be sent to residents of Ham Island providing an update on issues following January / February floods | TW |
| 3.16 | Point 6.1 – Chemical dosing of Straight Road, Old Windsor, pumping station / rising main – no update available at meeting. TW agreed to provide update for circulation following meeting | TW |
| 3.17 | Point 6.2 – TW to investigate impacts of January / February 2014 flood event on Lightlands Lane PS and effectiveness of bund around installation – TW have sought quotes for reinstatement / improvements to bund and will be progressing these works. SL flagged issue of water passing under bund through gravels | TW |
| 3.18 | Point 6.4 – Update on investigation into dual manholes (manholes through which both foul and surface water pipelines pass with a weir arrangement separating the different systems) and “cross connections” in the Slough area - no update available at meeting. TW agreed to provide update for circulation following meeting | TW |
| 3.19 | Point 6.5 – Setting up of multi-agency meeting to at Datchet Parish Council offices to discuss the issues relating to the inundation of Thames Water’s systems during flood events – outstanding | DP |
| 3.20 | Point 8.1 – Scheduling and administration of future meetings by Democratic Services - outstanding | BS |
| 3.21 | Point 8.1 – Terms of reference – BS stated that he had reviewed the terms of reference and was satisfied that they were reasonable. Membership details however need updating | BS |
| 4.0 | Update from RBWM | |
| 4.1 | The Borough’s draft Local Flood Risk Management Strategy which sets out how the Borough will manage, fund and resource flood risk management activities in the future has been completed and a public consultation on this strategy will be added to the Borough’s website overnight. Hard copies of the strategy and a summary document were available for any interested parties at the meeting. The consultation will close on 30th November 2014. A link to the consultation will be forwarded by email to all Ward Members, Parishes, and members of the Borough Flood Forum. SL asked HC whether he would be happy to forward this link to members of the Parish Flood Forum and HC confirmed that he was happy to do so. AD expressed the view that 6 weeks was too short for such an important consultation | All |
| 4.2 | DP provided an update on flood preparedness. A Borough Community Resilience Plan has now been completed. Intention is that Parish Councils should adopt this as a Local Community Resilience Plan incorporating greater detail where appropriate. A workshop is to be arranged with interested Parishes | DP / Parishes |
| 4.3 | The operation of the Causeway in Cookham was raised. BS stated that it had been agreed that Ward Members, Parish representatives, and representatives from local business were to formulate and put forward a proposal for consideration by the Borough FH also raised issues resulting from bus services not running through Cookham and suggested that people to places provision should be considered | |
| 4.4 | HC stated that the military should be involved from an early stage in any future flood events | |
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| 5.0 | Update from Environment Agency | |
| 5.1 | It has been agreed that the EA should lead on the reinstatement of the bund at the Eton End School JC stated that a “like for like” reinstatement of the bund would not require flood defence consent, but may require planning permission JC also stated that the school were clear what was required IT however suggested that the school were still awaiting level data from the EA and JC undertook to resend this data | EA |
| 5.2 | JC stated that the EA will be undertaking some works to address high water levels in Boveney Ditch / Roundmoor Ditch / Common Ditch, where heavy plant is required. This will not however relieve landowners of their responsibilities and landowners will be expected to undertake any future maintenance. JL stated that TW had also undertaken some weed clearance. | |
| 5.3 | JC stated that the River Thames Scheme Major Incident Plan has been completed and that an exercise is planned for November. The EA are also assessing the effectiveness of past property level protection measures installed as part of the River Thames Scheme The EA are continuing to work with professional partners on the funding strategy and planning process JG and BS have been invited to tour the route of the diversion channels Representatives of the Parish Flood Forum appealed for a regular update to the Borough Flood Forum on progress on the River Thames Scheme. It was agreed that an electronic update would be circulated with the minutes | EA SL |
| 5.4 | EL raised an issue relating to dredging of the River Thames in Oxford, and asked why the Lower Thames is not being dredged? JC stated dredging is undertaken to remove shoals for navigation purposes | |
| 5.5 | JC stated capacity improvements of Odney Weir are being investigated | |
| 5.6 | IT raised an issue relating to the maintenance of Datchet Common Brook, through The Queen Mother Reservoir site, and queried who the riparian owner was. Thames Water are the landowner within the reservoir site | |
| 5.7 | IT asked for an update on planned maintenance activities on The Myrke. JC stated that the EA’s maintenance plan is available on their website, and offered to assist if any member of the group had difficulty locating the relevant pages. IT undertook to check website and let JC know if he had any difficulties | IT / JC |
| 5.8 | JC confirmed that the EA had provided the Borough with a position statement relating to the replacement of flood damaged properties | |
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| 6.0 | Update from Thames Water | |
| 6.1 | JL stated that the road damaged by tanker movements at Ham Island would shortly be reinstated. TW were currently agreeing the scope of the work, and access arrangements during the work, with the residents | TW |
| 6.2 | Following the last update on improvements at various Pumping Stations, TW have now installed the new pumps at Shurlock Row PS, Waltham St Lawrence, and inspected and cleaned around 500m of the local sewer network. No operational defects like collapses or structural damage were detected but the system was heavily scaled. The scale has now been removed. | |
| 6.3 | TW reported that the following improvements have been undertaken at Little Marlow STW The screens have now been refurbished and are due to be replaced next year. Two of the primary tanks have been refurbished and the final one will be completed by the end of this year. Screens are being installed on the final tanks to allow the pontoon on the river to be removed. This will be carried out in approximately four weeks. | TW |
| 6.4 | JL confirmed that TW had undertaken some works on Roundmoor Ditch and that these works had been undertaken as a goodwill gesture. JL also stated that TW had put forward a proposal involving the relocation of the final discharge point from Slough STW to the Jubilee River. JC stated that she understood that the EA were unlikely to approve this. IT also stated that Datchet Parish Council would object to any such proposals | |
| 6.5 | JL stated that the bund surrounding the storm lagoons at Ham Island STW had been “firmed up” and brought up to a common level around the site TW also proposed the provision of a permanent Storm Sewage Overflow at the works, to replace the existing lagoons, and understood that the EA were supportive of this proposal | |
| 6.6 | HC raised the issue of ownership of the bridge to Ham Island. Both RBWM and TW have previously denied ownership. Pending resolution of ownership, RBWM will arrange structural survey | RBWM |
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| 7.0 | Parish Flood Group Update | |
| 7.1 | FW raised issue of impacts of January / February 2014 floods, and the loss of sewage services, on local business such as the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Odney Club JL stated that TW had just released their 5 year plan for improvements to the sewerage system | |
| 7.2 | An update on the recruitment of TW Customer Coordinators was requested and JL stated that this was currently being undertaken for the RBWM area | |
| 8.0 | Future Meetings | |
| 8.1 | The next two meetings would be during the week commencing 26th January 2015 (Note rescheduled for Monday 2nd February 2015) and the week commencing 4th May 2014 | |
| 9.0 | Any Other Business | |
| 9.1 | HC raised an issue regarding works being undertaken on the public right of way to the west of the Golf Course at Datchet, the manner the works are being undertaken in and the provision of an alternative route. To be referred to RBWM rights of way team | RBWM |
| 9.2 | FH raised an issue relating to the proposed Maidenhead Waterways Project and potential flood risk impacts upstream. BS advised that Gail Kenyon and Kiran Hunjan were the lead officers at the Borough on this project and should be able to provide an update on the latest position regarding the discharge of planning conditions regarding fluvial flood risk | |
| 9.3 | JC stated that the EA had recently launched two consultations The first relates to the draft Flood Risk Management Plan and closes on 31st January 2015. The second relates to the Thames River Basin Management Plan and closes on 10th April 2015 SL agreed to circulate link to the group | SL |