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.

Ben Crampin, Principal Flood Risk Manager, and Carolyn Richardson, Service Manager – Joint Emergency Planning Unit, gave an overview on the role and responsibilities in flooding.

The Borough had two key roles within flooding and incident response. The first is being the Lead Local Flood Authority (lead by Ben Crampin) 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 (headed by Carolyn Richardson) 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 a flooding event, the relevant aforementioned authorities would work together to respond to it and provide information to the public and community groups. RBWM and EA would investigate the causes of the flooding, following by debriefs and implementing solutions.

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.

The Chair commended the work on flooding response by the Borough flood officers.

Councillor Shaw mentioned that many areas were affected by surface flooding caused by unmaintained gullies and soakaways and asked what kind of investigations for these had taken place. Ben Crampin answered that the investigations were split in regard to highway (conducted by VolkerHighways) and property (by the RBWM Flood Risk Team). He stated that he was open for any maintenance issues being highlighted to him, particularly if there was any property impact.

The Chair asked about the timeline of the consultation and when the Strategy would be adopted. Ben Crampin answered that the original plan was to adopt the Strategy by the end of Summer 2024 but the flooding event in January 2024 and the subsequent investigations had pushed this back by 4-to-6 months. Once the post-flood investigations were completed, he anticipated that consultation would move again in Summer 2024 and that the Strategy would be adopted in early 2025.

(Ben Crampin and Carolyn Richardson left the meeting at 7:47pm)