Issue - meetings

Report of the Director – Neighbourhoods

The Director of Neighbourhoods introduced the Flood Risk Update report which provided an update since the last report to the Group in 2020, including information about flood risk, agency activity and local flood preparation work.

Mr Wells gave a presentation to the Group and outlined the role of Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) as the Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA). He said that NCC coordinated flood risk management related to ordinary watercourses, surface water and ground water flooding. He explained that main river flooding was manged by the Environment Agency, sewers were managed by Severn Trent Water and some land areas by the Trent Valley Internal Drainage Board.

Mr Wells said that NCC delivered the capital and revenue flood risk management schemes, published Section 19 reports and were a statutory consultee for surface water to Local and County planning authorities. He said that NCC maintained a register of assets having critical impact on local flooding and published the Local Flood Risk Management Strategy and Action Plan (LFRMS) and worked with communities to learn about local knowledge on flood risk and impact.

Mr Wells explained that NCC managed the Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment (PFRA) which assessed the current level of risk in the County, by area, and which provided an overview of areas at risk and assisted in determining where to direct funding. The current PFRA was published in July 2023.

In relation to the planning process, Mr Wells said that NCC was a statutory consultee for all planning authorities in the County for surface water in major developments, but not river or sewer flooding, and that they aimed to ensure that any development offered a betterment downstream and put in place flood mitigation measures such as ponds and attenuation tanks, with a preference for above group features.

In relation to the flood risk for Rushcliffe, Mr Wells said that this was difficult to assess but noted that Rushcliffe had a mix of flooding from surface, fluvial (watercourse) and sewer sources and had experienced two extreme events (three in the County) since 2023. He said that how flood risk was managed had changed and a more holistic approach was being taken using a range of different measures such as flood walls, natural flood management measures such as ponds and planting trees in watercourses along with more traditional property measures such as flood doors and self-closing air bricks. He said that improving local community resilience and knowledge was also a key aspect.

Mr Wells presented information about the flood impacts from recent storms, storm Babet in October 2023 and storm Henk in January 2024 and also the flooding which occurred in January 2025 where record levels were recorded on the River Soar and he confirmed that there were a number of communities within the Borough that experienced repeated flooding.

Mr Wells informed the Group about flood mitigation works undertaken by NCC across the Borough. At Costock he said that a natural flood management project had been installed in 2024 with three earth bunds,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7