To receive a presentation on flooding and emergency response from Ben Crampin, Principal Flood Risk Manager, Chris Joyce, Assistant Director of Placemaking Partnerships and Sustainability, and Carolyn Richardson, Service Manager – Joint Emergency Planning Unit.

Chris Joyce, Assistant Director of Placemaking Partnerships and Sustainability, informed that it was only himself and Carolyn Richardson, Service Manager – Joint Emergency Planning Unit, attending the meeting as Ben Crampin, Principal Flood Risk Manager, was presenting this item at Maidenhead Town Forum on the next day.

Chris Joyce informed that the presentation was to outline the roles and responsibilities which the Council had in relation to flooding and emergency responses in backdrop of the flooding event in January 2024.

The Borough had two key roles within flooding and incident response. The first is being the Lead Local Flood Authority which included the following responsibilities:

·       Maintain a Local Flood Risk Management Strategy,

·       Being the relevant authority for surface water and groundwater flooding,

·       Investigate flooding events,

·       A consultee on planning applications, such as new homes and business proposals to ensure they were not increasing flood risk,

·       Maintain RBWM-owned drainage systems,

·       Ensure riparian owners on ordinary water course were maintaining their responsibilities.

The second role from RBWM was its responsibilities in Emergency Planning which encompassed:

·       Review risks in the area,

·       Prepare plans relating to these risks, such as Adverse Weather Plan, which was implemented during the recent flooding event,

·       Undertake training and exercising with the Council and with multi-agency partners to ensure preparedness,

·       Support information sharing and engagement to help the public and community groups prepare for emergencies,

·       Work with Parish Council and local groups to help create community plans and encourage flood resilience, including property-level protection.

The Environment Agency (EA) were the Strategic Flooding Authority who had the following responsibilities:

·       Strategic oversight, including modelling for flood risk and maintaining a National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy,

·       Relevant authority for Fluvial Flood Risk, notably flooding from the River Thames,

Thames Water were the Sewerage Provider, who were responsible for:

·       Managing and maintaining the public sewer network,

·       Being the relevant authority for Sewage flooding.

During an emergency response, the relevant aforementioned authorities work in a multi-agency environment. After the Cabinet Office had set up Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBR), the Borough would establish the following structure:

·       At gold level, a Mult-Agency Strategic Coordinating Group (SCG) and a Strategic Emergency Management Team (SEMT),

·       At silver level, the Mult-Agency Tactical Coordinating Group (TCG) and an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC),

·       At bronze level, Multi-Agency Operational Coordinating Group and a Reception/Rest/Humanitarian Assistance Centre etc.

The Borough was in the process of developing a new Local Flood Risk Management Strategy, with the current one having been published in 2014 and thus requiring an update to bring it in line with current policy and to ensure it was line with current local flood risk (defined as surface water, groundwater and ordinary watercourses).

The new strategy would include:

·       Identification of Risk Management Authorities and their roles,

·       Known flood risk in the Borough,

·       Aims and objectives to mitigate local flood risk,

·       Action Plans detailing how these objectives would be achieved.

The strategy would be developed into a multi-agency document with other risk management agencies, Town Forums and Parish Councils being consulted throughout the process.

In terms of timescale, the consultation was supposed to take place at around March 2024, but this was delayed due to the recent flooding event in January 2024. The new timescale for the Local Flood Risk Management Strategy:

·       Summer 2023: Internal Consultation workshops.

·       Winter 2023/24: Held a drop in event for parish and borough members; and started organising further consultation events.

·       January 2024: Flooding from River Thames, which caused a delay to strategy development.

·       Summer 2024: Recommence consultation workshops for Parish and Town Forum areas with opportunity for feedback on draft objectives.

·       Ongoing: Development of action plans; complete the Strategy Document; a Statutory Consultation period for whole document; and finally, a Cabinet sign off.

While finding it reassuring that there was an ongoing flooding strategy, Nigel Griffin, a resident, raised that there was an issue of drain clearance, pointing out that King’s Road had blocked drains which usually developed a large puddle. Chris Joyce responded that there was a program of gully clearance and another one to improve highway drainage. Regular issues could also be reported ahead of floods so that the Borough was aware of them and could respond to it. He offered to take the issue at King’s Road away and report it back to the relevant team.

Councillor Knowles said that there was an accumulatively affect whereby debris on unswept roads go into drains and then block them, followed by water coming out the drains, then moves around on tarmac rather than dissipating. From this, Councillor Knowles perceived that there was a flood management plan which did not contain a risk management. He then highlighted a water runoff issue at St Leonard’s Hill due to a reservoir. He stated that a flood management plan could not happen without looking at the root causes, notably water flowing on hard surfaces. He suggested that the Local Flood Risk Management Strategy included a proper risk assessment of areas and an action plan to resolve them, theorising that there would be a noticeable difference if all the drains were cleared.

Speculating that was a misunderstanding, Chris Joyce clarified that an objective of his presentation was to announce that there was going to be further consultation on Local Flood Risk Management Strategy, which would cover the key risks and issues on flooding. From here, a detailed action plan would develop around to respond to this. In addition, the Emergency Planning Arrangements would include consideration on how to respond to flooding incidents. He reassured that the points covered by Councillor Knowles would be picked up in the Strategy, in which Ben Crampin would give further detail in Summer 2024. He was also open to pick up the specific points that were mentioned outside of the meeting.

Councillor Knowles then commented that the timescale was too stretched out, stating that flooding was an immediate issue. As the consultation was expected to be completed by Summer 2024 and was to be followed by an action plan, he expressed concerned that the relevant mitigation works would not be in place before another flooding event. Chris Joyce responded this process required a long-term strategy and that it was impractical to fix the issues immediately due to the Borough’s financial situation. Nevertheless, some quick wins may be implemented through the current capital program before the winter 2024.

Councillor Wilson reiterated Councillor Knowles’s point on the importance of an action plan for effective drainage infrastructure, which include blocked culverts and waterways.

Councillor W. Da Costa asked a series of questions. He first asked which department in RBWM was the relevant flood authority, particularly for making comments on Planning applications clarify. After thanking Chris Joyce, his officer colleagues and the Planning Response Team, he then asked what the costs for the emergency response were in terms of resources and officer time as well as who paid for this response. He then asked how Chris Joyce would advise the Borough to deal with the increased expectations of more frequent and severe flooding which were expected to occur in the coming years and the subsequent costs.

Answering in order, Chris Joyce replied that Ben Crampin and the Flooding Team acted as the lead local flood authority. He stated that the Borough recently brought the flooding planning application advice back in-house within a larger flooding team after it had been outsourced. He then said that he only had the direct cost during the emergency flooding response in terms of the overtime being paid and not the overall cost. He offered to write an answer on the outline of the costs back to the Forum. Chris Joyce added that there was an ability to reclaim some of the costs from central government if it reached a certain level (though he believed RBWM had not reached this level at the moment). In effect, the response arrangements needed to be funded by the Borough, such as the Cookham Causeway Plan, officer time, and temporary accommodation for flood-affected residents. If the costs reached a large amount, then the Council could trigger the Bellwind Grant.

In regard to climate change and the expectation of an increased frequency of extreme weather events, Chris Joyce said that a resilience plan would need to be put in place. He conveyed that there had been some discussions with other Berkshire authorities in regard to this, such as suggestions to jointly work around managing climate resilience and adaptation as well as collectively working to protect critical infrastructure and homes.

ACTION: Chris Joyce to forward an answer on the overall costs for the emergency response in terms of resources and officer time as well as who paid for this response, and how the Borough would deal with increased frequent and severe flooding and weather.

John Holland, a resident, commented that the Borough Local Plan anticipated significant housing development on flood plain and asked whether this had been taken into account in terms of the risk analysis. Chris Joyce answered that there were different levels of flood plain with different zones. A number of sites which appeared in Flood Zone 3 were taken out in the revisions to the Borough Local Plan. As part of the Planning application process, the applicant would need to demonstrate how their proposals would not increase flood risk. In addition, the Borough, as part of the planning process, ensured that many homes were not built in the highest risk flood plains.

Ian Haggart, a resident, highlighted fly-tipping going into small streams, causing then to become blocked and then cause water to flow into residential areas. After stating that the Borough responded to the residents reporting on this that the local landowner was responsible for this, he wondered whether the local flood authority could take any responsibility in dealing with this. Chris Joyce confirmed that it was a riparian owner’s responsibility to maintain watercourse, but he added that the lead local flood authority had powers to enforce against the owners to either push them to undertake maintenance or undertaken the works themselves and then charge the riparian owner.

Ian Haggart then requested that the Borough inform the relevant officers to take action against the riparian owner rather than deflecting it back to the reporting resident/s. Chris Joyce replied that if it was a case of fly-tipping causing a flooding issue, he would report it to the Flooding Team. The Chair also suggested that residents could also report to their local Councillors if they were not receiving satisfactory answers.

John Webb, a resident, asked what was to be done to clear the blocked drains around Windsor, how many drains would be cleared this year compared to last year, the measures put in place and the criteria for success. Chris Joyce replied that he did not possess the number of drains which were cleared in Windsor in 2023/24, stating that he could forward the answer in future. The Borough had a capital budget which provided funding for highways drainage and flooding issues. He further stated that the Borough would clear blocked drains though these would need to be reported so that it would be notified of it.

Following up from the mention of a capital budget for drainage works, Councillor Wilson asked if there was a maintenance budget as well, stating that some elements would fall under maintenance. Chris Joyce answered that this was covered in the highways contract.

In relation to the highways contract and maintenance, Sarah Walker, a resident, asked how frequent were the drains being maintained as well as how frequently the small waterways, which she stated were RBWM’s responsibility, were being dredged and cleared under the contracts. Chris Joyce stated that he would need to find the answer as highway contracts were out of his remit. He then said that while RBWM-owned infrastructure was its responsibility, it was not responsible for every drainage infrastructure with some instead being responsible by the riparian landowners.

ACTION: Chris Joyce to forward an answer on how frequently the drains being maintained as well as how frequently the RBWM-managed small waterways were being dredged and cleared under the contracts.