To receive verbal updates from Ben Crampin, RBWM Flood Risk Manager, and Emily Merritt, Emergency Planning Officer.

Ben Crampin, RBWM Principal Flood Risk Manager, and Emily Merritt, Emergency

Planning Officer, both presented an update from RBWM: the latter focused on the flooding response from RBWM while the former focused on the recovery stage.

Emily Merritt first explained the timeline of the flooding response from Thames Valley Local Resilience Forum (TVLRF) and RBWM’s internal response:

·       2^nd January 2024: TVLRF activated a partner activation teleconference (PAT) for the likely impact of Storm Henk.

·       3^rd January 2024: RBWM held its first flood coordination meeting in preparation of Storm Henk and forecasted rainfall.

·       5^th January 2024: TVLRF activated a tactical coordinating group (TCG) and a strategic coordinating group (SCG). Following from updates from the TCG and SCG as well as the north Thames Valley catchment in Oxfordshire and West Berkshire being impacted by the storm, RBWM enacted their virtual Flood Coordination Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) to support the response.

·       From 5^th January 2024 onwards: TVLRF were holding twice daily TCG and SCG meetings and a major incident was declared for Thames Valley due to impact being seen across Oxfordshire and West Berkshire. RBWM continued to hold virtual internal coordination meetings over the weekend to support the response which involved come critical decisions.

·       The Cookham Causeway Plan on standby on 6^th January and then activated on 7^th January 2024. An overnight virtual EOC meeting took place during the night of 6^th and 7^th January 2024 to manage flood warnings.

·       8^th January 2024: An in-person EOC meeting as well as several other multi-agency meetings were held concerning the flooding impact in Wraysbury and Old Windsor. Later on, Emergency Services were invited to join the EOC to form a Tactical Coordination Centre (TCC). At night, a multi-agency tactical coordinating group developed evacuation plans for Wraysbury. Furthermore, a multi-agency SCG was held for Wraysbury alongside a Rest Centre being set up at Windsor Leisure Centre for potential evacuations. Alongside this RBWM carried out preparation ahead for any potential evacuations.

·       9^th January 2024: In the early morning, the evacuation process began with vulnerable residents alongside an uptick in 999 calls being received by the Fire Service.

·       12^th January 2024: The Cookham Causeway was closed in light of the receding flood waters. EOC meetings came to an end while the TVLRF command and control structure stood down on 11^th January 2024.

·       15^th January 2024: The first meeting on the recovery process for RBWM took place.

Emily Merritt informed that there was regular communications and updates with parish councils and flood wardens during the flooding response. She added that a multi-agency debrief as well as an RBWM internal debrief were taking place. In addition, another debrief with Parish Councils and flood wardens was set to take place to reflect on the events and the response measures.

Before covering the Recovery stage, Ben Crampin informed that known areas impacted by flooding from River Thames and groundwater were most prominently Hurley, Bisham, Cookham, Wraysbury and Old Windsor. Approximately 59 internally flooded properties were reported to either the EA or RBWM.

In regard to the Flood Recovery Phase, Ben Crampin informed that RBWM had established a Recovery Coordination Group, which included a number of cells.

Ben Crampin explained each cell:

·       Neighbourhood Recovery, which focused on the physical recovery of the flooding event in terms of street cleaning, missed bin collection and road re-openings. Any issues, such as missed bin collections, could be reported at Highways@rbwm.gov.uk.

·       Community Support, which worked with Public Health and Wellbeing to provide support to affected residents and support vulnerable residents as well as work with Parish Councils and Community Groups to help residents. The main point of contact was volunteer@rbwm.gov.uk.

·       Flooding Recovery would liaise with the EA and other agencies throughout the recovery phase to share and collate data in order to unlock any potential government funding. There would also be a Section 19 investigation report to investigate the causes and impact of the flooding event and any roles and responsibilities that agencies or individuals have to the flooding. This would involve meetings with residents, local groups and Parish Councils. The main point of contact was Flood.enquiries@rbwm.gov.uk.

As part of the Flood Recovery Grants, Ben Crampin requested on the properties affected by flooding – the address of impacted property, the date of flooding, a brief description of the impact and any available photos and videos – to be sent over to him. He stated this information could be sent over with the following email addresses:

·       flooding.enquiries@rbwm.gov.uk

·       enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk.

Ben Crampin then concluded his update with useful contact information:

·       Threat to life – call 999.

·       Flooding to the highway, call RBWM Highways – 01628 683800.

o   Sewers and foul water, call Thames Water – 0800 316 9800.

o   Main river watercourse, call the Environment Agency – 0345 988 1188.

·       Non-urgent enquiries but flood related: flooding.enquiries@rbwm.gov.uk

·       RBWM Out of Hours Emergency Duty – 01753 853517 (CCTV)

·       RBWM in hours Duty Emergency Planning Officer – 01635 503535

·       RBWM Emergency Planning email – Emergency.Planning@RBWM.gov.uk

Concerning the gathering of information and data, Councillor Howard asked for reassurance of when this was happening, how it would happen and what would be done, stating that many people wanted to be heard. Ben Crampin replied that the Flood Management Team was collecting data from residents reporting through the Flood Enquiries inbox, which would be added to an information spreadsheet and then passed on to the EA. Information would also be collated through the Section 19 investigation report, which would involve going out on-site to meet affected people and would also be passed on to the EA as well.

Ben Crampin offered to be notified by Councillor Howard of any particular residents or groups who wanted to meet flood officers and he would then arrange meetings with those residents to ensure they gathered the information.

The Chair informed Councillor Howard that there were similar public meetings in Datchet, Horton and Wraysbury parishes with ward councillors, describing them as an effective method for people to discuss flooding issues with parishes providing an extra link. He stated that he would feed back to Ben Crampin and Chris Joyce on any particular residents the Borough should pick up data from.

Chris Joyce reassured that the details of the debriefing process would be published shortly. As part of the ‘hot debrief’ (immediate feedback) over the next few weeks, the intention was to meet all of the Parish and Borough Ward councillors in each area affected by the flooding. This would involve a survey process to collate large volumes of information which would then be filtered to allow a more detailed conversation in each of those areas based upon the points raised. The ‘cold debrief’ (longer-term feedback) would take place over the next couple of months. The overall process, Chris Joyce reassured, would include many opportunities for communities, parishes and Ward councillors to feed in information to ensure the Borough learnt from the events as well as improve its emergency response plans.

While acknowledging the formal debrief process, Councillor Howard asserted that the communication needed to take place very soon, stating that more rainfalls were likely between the present day and the end of winter; otherwise, there would more public dismay or misunderstanding. Chris Joyce replied that this would take place during the ‘hot debrief’ over the next few weeks and that details on this would be published shortly.