Agenda item

North Tyneside Local Flood Risk Management Strategy

To seek approval for the North Tyneside Local Flood Risk Management Strategy.

Minutes:

Cabinet considered a report seeking approval for an updated North Tyneside Local Flood Risk Management Strategy.

 

In 2012, North Tyneside had experienced a number of devastating storms causing flooding to hundreds of homes across the Borough.  This included the infamous Thunder Thursday.

 

In response to this, the Authority had set up a Surface Water Task Group which had developed a range of initiatives to tackle flooding.  This included the development of a detailed flood risk management strategy, approved by Cabinet in 2014.  Under this strategy the Authority had successfully delivered a range of major schemes and other initiatives which had greatly reduced the risk of flooding across the borough. The achievements made during the lifetime of the first Local Strategy were summarised in the report.

 

The flooding strategy now required updating in order to take into account changes in legislation, the introduction of a new national flooding strategy and to reflect the impact of work that had been completed over the last few years.  The updated strategy was attached at Appendix 1 to the report, and this set out the Authority’s future objectives and approach to flood risk management.

 

Although much had been achieved since 2012, the Authority remained fully committed to flood risk management.  The updated Local Strategy therefore largely continued with the original policy direction and objectives.  The way the Authority would achieve these were set out in the revised strategy.

The objectives shown in section 1.5.3 of the report aligned with those included within the latest national DEFRA strategy for flood risk management which had been developed in 2020.  The revised Local Strategy would provide the strategic framework for the Authority to continue its programme of surface water management work from now until 2032 in line with the timescales of similar engineering strategies and plans such as the Highway Asset Management Plan.

 

In terms of funding, the majority of flooding hotspots identified within the borough had been addressed during the lifetime of the current Local Strategy. As such, at this time, there was no need for the Authority to provide further capital investment. Future schemes and studies would be smaller scale and would normally be funded through external grants, in particular from the Environment Agency. With regard to new housing, developers would be required to fund drainage systems in line with the conditions of detailed flood risk assessments which they were required to undertake. The Authority and partner agencies would work with housing developers to ensure this was done in the most sustainable manner.

 

The Cabinet Member for Environment commented that whilst it was very pleasing to see all the good work done to date, it was vital that the Authority continued with this important area of work and believed the updated Flood Risk Management Strategy would provide the framework for achieving this.

 

Cabinet considered the following decision options:  to either approve the recommendations as set out in section 1.2 of the report, or alternatively, to not approve the recommendations.

 

Resolved that (1) the information presented in the report be noted; and

(2)  The North Tyneside Local Flood Risk Management Strategy at

Appendix 1 to the report, be approved.

 

(Reason for decision: This will ensure the Authority’s ongoing commitment to tackling surface water issues and will fulfil the statutory requirement to have a published Local Strategy in place to manage this).

 

Supporting documents: