Issue - meetings

Report of Head of Building Control and Engineering Services

Summary

All the recommendations of the Pitt Report into the Summer 2007 floods were accepted by the Government in late 2008.  Following that in April 2009 the draft Flood and Water Management Bill was published and consulted upon.  The Bill seeks to rearrange the various ways in which existing land drainage and flood risk management powers and responsibilities are organised, and proposes some new duties for those involved.  If enacted the Bill would have significant implications for the way these services are delivered locally.  The purpose of this Report is to appraise Members of those implications and to recommend an approach that supports the promotion of high quality land drainage services in Cherwell District in the future.

Recommendations

The Executive is recommended to:

1)                 Support the ways in which the Flood and Water Management Bill seeks to place greater accountability on the Public Sector for flood risk management.

2)                 Note that it is likely that the lead statutory role in land drainage and flood risk management will rest in future with Oxfordshire County Council.

3)                 Recognise that it follows from (2) above that in future it will only be possible to provide land drainage and flood risk management services at District level through agencies or operational protocols to the Lead Local Flood Authority which is proposed to be the County Council.

4)                 Pursue partnership discussions about how District Councils in Oxfordshire might work with the County Council to provide high quality land drainage and flood risk management services in the future.

Agreed, with the amendment to the wording of Recommendation 4: to insert the following text after ‘District Councils’: ‘and especially district officers with extensive local knowledge’.

The Head of Building Control and Engineering Services submitted a report which noted that all the recommendations of the Pitt Report into the Summer 2007 floods were accepted by the Government in late 2008.  Following that in April 2009 the draft Flood and Water Management Bill was published and consulted upon.  The Bill seeks to rearrange the various ways in which existing land drainage and flood risk management powers and responsibilities are organised, and proposes some new duties for those involved.  If enacted the Bill would have significant implications for the way these services are delivered locally.  The purpose of this Report is to appraise Members of those implications and to recommend an approach that supports the promotion of high quality land drainage services in Cherwell District in the future.

Resolved

1)                 That the ways in which the Flood and Water Management Bill seeks to place greater accountability on the Public Sector for flood risk management be supported.

2)                 That it be noted that it is likely the lead statutory role in land drainage and flood risk management will rest in future with Oxfordshire County Council.

3)                 That it be recognised following from (2) above that in future it will only be possible to provide land drainage and flood risk management services at District level through agencies or operational protocols to the Lead Local Flood Authority which is proposed to be the County Council.

4)                 That the Council pursue partnership discussions about how District Councils and especially district officers with extensive local knowledge in Oxfordshire might work with the County Council to provide high quality land drainage and flood risk management services in the future.

Reasons – The Head of Building Control and Engineering Services reported to the Executive on 3 November 2008 with a summary of the Pitt Review Final Recommendations and intimated that the Government was set on using those as a basis for fundamental changes in the way land drainage and flood risk management is organised and delivered in England and Wales.  There has followed a draft Flood and Water Management Bill which sets out the Government’s proposals.