To approve the Herefordshire local flood risk management strategy.

The cabinet member for infrastructure introduced the report. He stated that the strategy was a mandatory requirement and designed to be high level and non-technical. The completion of the document would allow access to various funding sources to assist with flood procedures.

The directorate services team leader spoke to the report. He stated that Herefordshire Council was the lead local flood authority and had a duty to produce a strategy. Local flooding had a significant impact on the people and economy of the county and was predicted to increase due to climate change, increasing development and changing land use practices. The strategy set out a countywide approach for managing the risks of flooding, working in partnership with other relevant agencies.

It was reported that consultation had been undertaken which had concluded in January 2017 and the 18 responses received, including from bodies such as the Environment Agency, NFU and Woodland Trust, had been reviewed and taken into account when putting together the strategy.  The strategy had also been discussed at general scrutiny committee.

The action plan to the strategy identified a programme of work to reduce local flood risk within the county and set out how the strategy would be delivered over the following 6 years. The action plan would need to be updated regularly to reflect progress made.

The vice-chairman of the general scrutiny committee was pleased to the note that the recommendations of the scrutiny committee had been taken on board. She drew attention to recommendation (f) of the scrutiny committee which had been omitted from the report to cabinet namely that:

“The statutory scrutiny officer be informed of the annual review of the action plan and following consultation with the chairman and vice-chairman consider whether there are any material matters requiring consideration by the [scrutiny] committee.”

The directorate services team leader confirmed that this would take place to allow for ongoing oversight of the action plan by the scrutiny committee.

In response to a question it was noted that part of the strategy was an ongoing dialogue with partner agencies to ensure that they were held to account and that the co-ordinated approach was reinforced.

The group leader of Its Our County raised the following queries:

•       whether the statement on page 50 of the strategy that “Herefordshire Council do not allocate specific sites for development within the county, but propose broad strategic directions for growth…” was accurate;

•       why there were no schemes planned in Herefordshire through the Welsh Water RainScape initiative and whether the council would be pursuing funding through this scheme;

•       if ‘A risk-based approach must be taken when selecting sites for development and deciding on the type of development that would be considered acceptable’ (non-technical summary, objective 5 paragraph 1), why the three elms site was allowed to be a strategic housing site when the hydro-geology of the site and other relevant matters were never properly evaluated.

A written response was promised to these points.

It was noted that an issue had been raised before the meeting regarding the wording of the document in relation to planning applications, specifically the use of the word ‘notable’ in the sentence:

“For all new developments, the developer will be required to demonstrate that the development will not cause any notable increase in flood risk to people, property or infrastructure elsewhere.”

It was suggested that there could be a legal challenge regarding the use of the word and whether it could be adequately defined. The cabinet member for infrastructure felt that the word was appropriate for the context in which it was used and it was noted that simply stating that development should not cause any increase flood risk could also be open to challenge.

It was proposed that the revision of this statement be considered by officers outside of the meeting and that the cabinet member be authorised to make adjustments as necessary to address the points raised during the meeting.

Resolved that:

(a)  the cabinet member infrastructure be authorised to

           (i)       make any amendments that he deems necessary once he has considered the points raised during the meeting and then

          (ii)      approve the Herefordshire Local Flood Risk Management Strategy (the high level strategic document and non-technical summary at appendices 1 and 2 to this report).