Agenda item

To consider the North Tyneside Surface Water and Drainage Partnership Annual Report and a proposal to dissolve the Partnership in the light of the original aims and objectives of the Partnership now having been met.

Cabinet received the North Tyneside Surface Water and Drainage Partnership Annual Update.

Over the last 12 months the Partnership had coordinated the Authority’s involvement in the following areas:

·       the Killingworth and Longbenton Sustainable Surface Drainage Project, a multi-agency project between the Authority, Northumbrian Water and The Environment Agency;

·       progression of the Flood Risk Implementation Plan, overseeing the planned improvements and progression of schemes and the works;

·       the work being carried out around community preparedness including ongoing communications and regular engagement with the wider community, key stakeholders and community flood wardens; and

·       the Flood Alleviation spend.

The following specific work had been delivered since the last update report to Cabinet:

·       Briar Vale, Monkseaton – Completion of the final phase of work in Murton Gap to reduce the risk of flooding to nearby homes.  The £0.800 million scheme involved installing large dry storage basins and a new culvert system

·       Killingworth and Longbenton Sustainable Drainage Project – Completion of the final phase of this £6 million partnership project which involved the creation of a large dry storage basin at the edge of Killingworth lake and a new culvert to divert lake drainage into a nearby natural watercourse.

The review of the Partnership the Briar Vale major flood alleviation scheme was the final project in a 4-year programme of capital work to reduce the risk of surface water flooding.  The programme was completed earlier this year.  The Partnership had therefore undertaken a review to summarise what had been achieved throughout the Partnership’s lifetime; determine whether the aims and objectives of the Partnership had been met; and recommend whether or not there was a need to continue with the Partnership.

The Authority had contributed £4.75 million into flood risk management working with its partners and this had resulted in an overall investment of around £20 million. The achievements of the Partnership were summarised in the report.  Officers had revisited the Partnership Terms of Reference to test whether the original aims and objectives had been met.  These were set out in the report together with the assessment made against each objective.

The review had concluded that the objectives of the Partnership had been successfully met and the good practice that had been developed was now embedded in the daily business of the partner organisations.  It was therefore recommended that the existing governance arrangements of the Partnership were dissolved. Established regional networks with partners relating to flood risk management existed that had their own separate governance arrangements. It was therefore proposed that the management of local surface water issues continued to be managed using a business as usual approach through these arrangements.

A number of measures would be kept in place to ensure that the good work of the Partnership was continued.  These were continued active participation in the Northumbria Integrated Drainage Partnership; active regular liaison with other partner drainage agencies to deal with day to day surface water issues; and public engagement and community activity including continuation of the flood warden scheme.

In the event of a major flooding event existing major incident protocols would be used as part of the resilience and emergency planning arrangements that had been improved and embedded.

Cabinet considered the following decision options: either to approve the recommendation to dissolve the existing partnership arrangements, or alternatively, to not approve the recommendation.

The Elected Mayor thanked all those for the work done in helping to achieve the objectives of the Partnership.

Resolved that (1) the progress made in relation to the North Tyneside Surface Water and Drainage Partnership be noted; and

(2) the dissolution of the Partnership for the reasons set out in Sections 1.5.5 and 1.5.6 of the report be approved.

(Reasons for recommended option: A review of the Partnership has concluded that it has met its original aims and objectives.  The capital work overseen by the Partnership is now complete and the good practice developed has been embedded in daily business which means there is no longer a requirement for a formal partnership arrangement.)