Members Seminar 15 September 2014Flood Risk

• Christina Harrhy – Chief Officer, Neighbourhood Services

• Stephen Jarrett, Andrew Villars, Mark Strickland – Highways and Transportation

• Rob Murray – Forward Planning, Local Planning Authority

Flood Risk

An opportunity to present on:

•Flood Risk Management •Operational activities•The flooding event of 22 May 2014

Flood Risk Management

• Main Legislation – Flood and Water Management Act 2010

• TCBC was identified as one of 8 areas in Wales as including a significant flood risk area by the Environment Agency in 2011

• The flood risk area covers an area from Abersychan in the north, to Cwmbran in the south.

Flood Risk Management

• What do we need to do?• Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment Report – Completed in

accordance with required timescales

• Flood Risk Management Strategy – Completed in accordance with timescales, and is now Council Policy

• Flood Risk Management Plans – Ongoing, to be completed by June 2015

• This completes a five year cycle and will recommence in 2016/17

Flood Risk Management

• The FWMA requires us to:• Develop, agree, maintain apply and monitor a Flood Risk

Management Strategy to satisfy the requirements of the Act, which is to identify and where possible and practicable, reduce the risk of flooding

• The FWMA does not require us to:• Prevent flooding

• Act on behalf of another Risk Management Authority e.g. Welsh Water

Flood Risk Management

• The three main themes of the Strategy are:

• To reduce the risk of flooding• To increase the preparedness for flooding• To increase the protection against flooding

Operational Activities - Culverts

• We have long been carrying out maintenance of culvert entrances to reduce the risk of flooding

• An agreed system has been devised whereby operatives inspect, report and where necessary cleanse debris from culvert entrances. This extends to 229 culvert entrances across the County Borough.

• We have dedicated resource of two operatives, and a vehicle

Culvert Landrover

Operational Activities - Culverts

• Routine culvert inspections• This regime attaches a risk priority number to each culvert

based on factors such as catchment size, culvert capacity and flooding consequences. The areas around the culvert entrance are routinely cleansed, not extended lengths of watercourse.

Priority Winter Summer

123

WeeklyFortnightlyMonthly

FortnightlyMonthlyBi-monthly

Operational Activities - Culverts

• Adverse weather conditions• Where information from the Met Office indicates, or

officers consider necessary, additional ad hoc inspections may be undertaken

• This can necessitate the redeployment of resources to assist the dedicated crew

• It can also necessitate redeployment of staff to continuously monitor culvert entrances

Operational Activities - Culverts

• Capital investment• Major schemes were been carried out to reduce risk in

areas across the County Borough, mainly pre 96.

• Minor schemes primarily to improve security/trash screens have been undertaken since 96, to improve to the then current standards.

Operational Activities – Gully Cleansing

• We have an agreed process for gully cleansing for those gullies on the adopted highway network, this extends to some

17 500 gullies.

• There are gullies in the control of others

• We have a dedicated resource of two operatives and one gully sucker

Gully Sucker

Operational Activities – Gully Cleansing• Routine Inspections• With the available resources, the schedule is pressurised.

• We operate an inspect and cleanse regime aiming to cleanse as necessary once per annum

• We are aware of areas where highway drainage is not functioning, but these can include areas where more major maintenance is necessary to repair connections. These area are assessed and where necessary works have to be considered against competing pressures within the overall programme

• We are fulfilling our statutory duties

Operational Activities – Gully Cleansing

• Adverse weather conditions• Similar to our response to culverts, if necessary, we would

seek to ensure we have the best response available in adverse weather conditions that could include ensuring the availability of the gully sucker out of hours as a responsive asset.

Operational Activities – Gully Cleansing

• Capital investment• Via the Welsh Government Local Government Borrowing

Initiative and previous Authority prudential borrowing we have invested approximately £300K over the last four years in repairing long standing defective parts of the system. There is no formal indication at present that the LGBI funding will be continued beyond this financial year

• Others Factors• It is not unheard of for others to damage our drainage

systems that may not be known for many years

Statutory Undertaker Damage

Flooding Event 22 May - Cwmbran

• As Lead Local Flood Authority, we have produced a Section 19 Report in accordance with the Flood and Water Management Act 2010

• The report details the event, the reasons for the flooding, and makes a series of recommendations that will be explored in detail in the coming months in accordance with our duty

Flooding Event 22 May - Cwmbran• The event• The event was an extreme localised event that has been

assessed as a greater than 1 in 100 year event, with Met Office data advising an intensity of 78mm/hr, although this is thought to have been exceeded in some areas

• The impact of the event caused internal flooding to 198 properties

• The culvert inspection and cleaning and gully cleansing schedule were in accordance with our schedules prior to the event

• Two supermarkets were structurally damaged

Oldbury Road

Fairhill

Penmaes Road

Gifford Close

Cwmbran area

Flooding Event 22 May - Cwmbran• Reasons for flooding• 198 properties were internally flooded and these have been

categorised into the following:

• 108 properties from culvert overloads

• 26 properties affected by the public sewerage system, although Welsh Water have only received 20 contacts from residents

• 64 properties from overland flows such as garden run off, run off from highways

Flooding Event 22 May Cwmbran

• Recommendations• The use of community engagement and awareness

programmes as set out in the Strategy will develop the resilience of communities

• Where deemed appropriate and in line with the Strategy, there may be works carried out by the Authority consisting of small scale works to redirect surface flows and to create flood paths. There needs to be a clear return on investement

• The consideration of our maintenance regimes

Flood Risk – The Future

• Climate change• The systems and regimes for reducing flood risk

are evolving• There may be a need for capital investment that

the Council will need to consider• Public engagement and engagement with our

partners is necessary, and the responsibilities of the RMA’s, and residents and property owners, needs to be understood

Flood Risk - Summary

• We have a responsibility to reduce the risk of, not prevent, flooding

• We have a proactive and reactive approach to fulfilling our duties

• The event of the 22 May was extreme and if it happened again in the County Bourogh would likely have similar consequences

• We are happy to engage with the community as per our Strategy