To respond to consultations from the Environment Agency and the Welsh Assembly Government on the future of flood defence funding in England and Wales.  (Replies have been requested by 5 December 2003 for the Welsh Assembly Government and 31 December 2003 for the Environment Agency.)

THAT it be recommended to the Environment Agency and the Welsh Assembly Government that:

(a)         any future Regional Flood Defence Committee having responsibility for Herefordshire should be sufficiently small to ensure that local interests can be properly represented;

(b)         the funding arrangements for work undertaken by the Regional Flood Defence Committee must be consistent across the whole of the Committee area and not affected by national boundaries;

(c)         in the event that Herefordshire remains within a Welsh system of Regional Committees, the creation of three Regional Committees for Wales be recommended; and

(d)    if the English/Welsh border is adopted as the boundary for Flood Defence Committees, Herefordshire should become part of an English Regional Committee structure but within a smaller region than that proposed for the Midlands Regional Flood Defence Committee.

In March 2003 the Government announced the outcomes of the Flood and Coastal Defence Funding Review.  One of the key recommendations of the review is the creation of Single Tier Flood Defence Committees. The proposals, if adopted, would apply to England and Wales and would result in the abolition of any current two tier (Regional and Local) committee structures.

Consultation on the proposals is now being undertaken by the Environment Agency for England and the Welsh Assembly Government for Wales.

Within Herefordshire, flood defence functions on the River Wye are the responsibility of the Environment Agency Wales and are generally discharged through the River Wye Local Defence Committee, which is subsidiary to the Welsh Regional Flood Defence Committee.

As described in the report.