Agenda item

To receive a report and presentation on:

·         highway drainage including the process for cleaning gullies;

·         statutory report in relation to the requirements of Section 19 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, relating to the 2019 flooding in Poynton; and

·         the Council’s annual flood risk management arrangements.

Chris Hindle, Head of Strategic Infrastructure attended the meeting and introduced this item.

The Committee heard that the Council has a duty to carry out a Flood Investigation as required by Flood and Water Management Act 2010 (Section 19) legislation and following any significant flooding affecting the borough.  The presentation received by the Committee focused on the Section 19, the subsequent actions of the Flood Risk Management Authorities and the mechanisms of flooding to enable recommendations for the instances of future flooding.

Vicky Venn, Flood Risk Officer and Paul Reeves, Flood Risk Manager presented to the Committee.

The Committee heard detail relating specifically to the flooding in Poynton in July 2019 (the second incident of flooding, the first being in 2016) that included:

• The July 2019 Flood Event covered 5 catchments: Poynton Brook, River Dean, River Bollin, Harrop Brook and the tributary of Todd Brook;
• The area experienced 180mm of rainfall which was 2 months rain in 5 days;
• A major incident was declared by the Council, affected 105 residential properties and 12 commercial properties;

In terms of completed Flood Recovery Works these included:

• 14,000 drains were cleared in flood hit areas;
• 290 ironwork repairs were completed;
• 74 drainage repairs were completed; and
• 111 drainage issues were investigated and completed.  Structural carriageway repairs are ongoing.

Cheshire East Council have continued a programme of Highway Improvements following the incident in 2019 that have included, road, highway drainage, surface water separation and CCTV improvements.  The Council have consulted with residents and worked with external partners as part of extensive Multi Agency partnership approach. 

Jonathan Cartledge from United Utilities (UU) and David Brown from the Environment Agency (EA) attended the meeting as external partners and provided a presentation to the Committee.  Key points included:

• During flooding UU had been contacted by a number of residents.  When rivers broke the banks, this had a dramatic impact on the downstream network; 
• CCTV had been installed where inundation of water was known;
• As a Proactive measure UU had undertaken a pilot scheme to monitor the water network and extended it out to Poynton with CCTV at areas of concern; and
• EA had an engagement event with people interested in voluntarily holding water on their land, (there was no mandatory requirement for landholders) and how homeowners manage the banks along their homes.  Cheshire Wildlife were working towards developing schemes to promote Natural Flood Management. 

Members were invited to question the officers and visiting partners present, and the following points were acknowledged:

• The importance of strong partnership working;
• The importance of sustainable urban drainage system and system expertise;
• The Active Flood Action Group in Poynton and managing the relationships with Poynton residents, particularly those who were advised in 2016 that the flooding would not happen again.  The importance of informing debate and not losing the local views;
• Acknowledging history and the resources available to Local Authorities particularly questioning if full water course inspections are in place;
• The need for funding and more emphasis on the skills to deliver resources because of Climate Change;
• Informing residents about repairing water systems in urban areas and futureproofing;
• Communications to home owners on managing expectations of Culvert inspections on their land, responsibilities and the rights of the land owner;
• Encouragement of wider biodiversity; and
• The importance to ensure Local Residents are communicated with appropriately, some residents do not have access to the internet.

Chris Hindle introduced a short update to Members on highway gullies, Simon Davies Operations Manager for Highways presented to the Committee.

Simon advised the Committee that the Council collect asset and condition data to feed into programmes for the future.  The frequency did vary, some are emptied annually, some are every 3 years.  The more intelligence the better informed the programmes are and resources can be targeted.

There were challenges in urban areas such as parked cars, leaf fall and detritus.  Rural areas show different challenges, the highway drain relies on maintenance on associated systems downstream from the gully.

There had been investment in 2 new vehicles and the equipment to collect and manage data and inform future decisions re: emptying gullies- want to refine programme.

Members were given the opportunity to question Officers.  The Committee noted that:

• There was the potential for better communications to residents to update on gullies as the perception from residents that nothing has been done if a gully has had no maintenance in some time; and
• There had been improvement in GPS and telematic systems to plot gullies accurately and highway drains associated with them however there were omissions in records.

Following the presentations and debate, suggestion was raised to establish a task and finish group to undertake an in-depth review of flooding and flood risk management in Cheshire East. This would enable a number of meetings to be set up for task and finish members, as well as local ward councillors, to scrutinise the impacts of the 2019 flooding in the various areas of Cheshire East that were affected (e.g. Poynton, Kettleshulme, Adlington, Prestbury, Bollington were named as some of the example areas).

The Committee agreed that the outcome of this would enable more in-depth and detailed scrutiny and challenge to be carried out, which could lead to some specific and effective conclusions and recommendations to bring forward through the Environment and Regeneration OSC.

RESOLVED-

a) That Officers and external partners be thanked for their time, presentations and contributions to the debate today;

b) That Helen Davies contact Members of this Committee to establish appropriate membership for the Task and Finish Group and identify a date for the first meeting.