To receive the above verbal update.

Carolyn Richardson, Emergency Planning Manager, introduced the item and started by stating the current focus was on how the Council responded to the flooding earlier in the year, rather than what had caused it. There had been 24 individual responses from parish councils, flood wardens and ward members as part of the survey, which had provided useful feedback and lessons to take forward in future flooding events. As a result the  Cookham Causeway Plan will be reviewed   along with  the sandbag policy; and training and ways of improving staff knowledge was being looked into. Carolyn Richardson confirmed this would include training for elected Members and communities.

Joe Hitchman, Principal Flood Risk Engineer with the Project Centre, said other risk management authorities were involved as part of the investigations into the flooding. However any report produced would not be in-depth and would not compel anyone to undertake any work. This was likely to be produced by the end of July. Sue Fox, Principal Commissioning Officer, said site visits would be made and affected residents spoken to. She said it was understood some of the flooding was caused as a result of ground water infiltration. Cllr Coppinger thanked staff for their work in helping residents in his ward.

Joe Hitchman said the deadline for applying for funding grants for 2022/23 was Friday. An application was being worked on for a project specifically related to Cox Green to address surface water flood risk. Similar problems had been identified in Fifield, Holyport and Oakley Green. The Council was looking to liaise with the Environment Agency on this issue.

Sue Fox said the Capital Programme had been approved since the group last met, which would provide budget for a survey of up to 200 soakaways. These would be prioritised based on need. The Flood Prevention Programme had also been compiled, which included work planned in Horton and Wraysbury and investigations into groundwater in Cookham. Sue Fox told the group that a non-return valve was due to be installed in Datchet, which would allow excess water to flow off the roads and into Datchet Common Brook. A programme of minor highway drainage works was also planned. Regarding the River Thames infrastructure project, Sue Fox said discussions were taking place with the Environment Agency to look at alternative schemes in Wraysbury and Datchet that had been suggested by the relevant parish councils. A scheme relating to the Datchet barrel arch had been delayed. Sue Fox said she had arranged for the CCTV survey report and a commentary from the Project Centre to be shared with members.

Cllr Larcombe asked when work would take place on the Wraysbury drain. He advised it was blocked downstream but had gone dry upstream as it had not been managed properly. Sue Fox said partner organisations would be assessing the upstream section over the course of the next month to determine what work needed doing to ensure it was flowing properly, so a coherent strategy could be developed. Regarding the downstream section, blockages had occurred over a number of years and work needed to be carried out to determine what was causing them. Sue Fox said this would be a longer piece of work.

Cllr Brar asked if there was any update on the culvert along the A404. Sue Fox said she was not familiar with this and said she would contact Cllr Brar outside the meeting about this. Brianne Vally said a study had taken place a few years ago and its findings shared with Cookham Parish Council and the Royal Borough. However she advised that the findings had been inconclusive and no more work had taken place since.