Issue - meetings

The Service Manager Economic Growth and Property introduced this item and explained that it followed on from discussions at the Growth and Development Scrutiny Group in September 2022 where information had been provided by Severn Trent Water and the Environment Agency. She said that Members had expressed interest in receiving an update from Nottinghamshire County Council in their role as flood authority and as such Mr Smith was attending this meeting. Representatives from Severn Trent and the Environment Agency had also been invited to attend but unfortunately Environment Agency representatives had had to send their apologies due to commitments with the current flooding. They had said that they would be happy to attend a future meeting instead. Severn Trent may not have capacity to attend.

Mr Smith from Nottinghamshire County Council presented an update to the Group about the County Council’s role as Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA).

Mr Smith provided information about Storm Babet and said that approximately 1200 properties had been internally flooded, spread across 79 areas, with 28 properties being in Rushcliffe. He said that over 100 roads had been closed making access to affected areas difficult.

Mr Smith explained that the role of the LLFA was to coordinate flood risk management across Nottinghamshire, coordinating with the various agencies involved, including Severn Trent Water, the Environment Agency and town and parish councils. He said that the LLFA managed surface water only and was a statutory consultee on surface water only to the local planning authorities and the County planning authority for major applications. He said that it could not comment on issues such as river or sewer flooding.

Mr Smith informed the Group that the County Council maintained a register of assets that had a critical impact on flood risk in the County, such as culverts, to ensure that they were adequately maintained and it issued land drainage consents and compliance checks. He said that the County Council published and developed a Local Flood Risk Management Strategy and Action Plan and that it worked with communities to raise awareness of flood risk and support them in how to become more flood resilient. The County Council also delivered the Capital and Revenue Flood Risk Management Schemes programme

The LLFA was required to carry out a Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment Review (PFRA) every six years and as part of the recent review it had rewritten documentation to bring it up to date, in line with current policies and to include analysis of potential future flood impacts and information about who to contact for advice about various concerns. The documentation was published in July 2023.

Mr Smith said that the County Council owned a suite of four drones for which it had seven qualified pilots and that it used them for a variety of work including to help with flood surveillance work and inspecting assets He said that the County Council would be happy to share these resources with partner agencies where possible.

In relation to property flood resilience, Mr  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15