Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Sanderson, Ian Cooke (EA) and Eve Pierrepont, (Yorkshire Water).

The minutes of the meeting held on 18 October 2016 were agreed as a correct record, subject to the following amendments.

Min 33 para 2 - amend as follows;

"The North York Moors National Park has submitted a Heritage Lottery Fund bid for a project on the River Rye......."

Min 34 bullet point 4 - amend as follows;

·         engage Mouchel to develop/update the Arup report. NYCC was asked when the works recommended by the report would commence. In response, NYCC advised that, at this time, no programme had been planned, finance was not in place and no timetable to raise funding had been planned

Min 36 bullet point 6; remove the second sentence starting "Natural England..."

Karen Saunders from the Partnership gave the following update;

·         A reminder of the of the purpose and objectives of the Partnership

·         Details of the successful and submitted bids for funding to include among other projects, improvement works at Norton Ings

·         Development of a Catchment Plan

·         Recruitment of a full time officer for the Partnership

·         Working with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to engage with community groups to map the locations of invasive non-native species to develop a strategy

·         The Forestry Commission are running a scheme regarding Natural Flood Management in flood risk areas

Cllr Keal reminded the Group of the work done at Norton Ings by Norton Wildlife Trust and was advised that the project would look to include engagement with local schools. Cllr Keal also asked whether there was any scope to include Ladyspring Woods in the projects and was advised that it was not included in this funding bid but was considered in the wider Partnership.

Cllr Andrews asked if any funds were available for works detailed in the ARUP report and was advised that the report did not detail any specific projects suitable for the Partnerships funding stream.

Ms Saunders advised that the Partnership would check to see if any action in Brawby would fit with the Partnership objectives and if the Partnership could help in any way.

As part of a fact finding exercise the Partnership would liaise with the IDB to access available studies and reports that would aid the Partnership's objectives.

In his absence Ian Cooke, Environment Agency, provided the following update.

Routine Maintenance

Currently undertaking winter working where the focus is on tree work and watercourse walkthroughs.

Tree Work

The EA workforce is currently completing tree work in the Pocklington area and will then be moving to Butterwick the clear trees and blockages from the Butterwick Bridge up to Ness. It is then planned to follow on to remove some trees through Marton Village that are growing on the flood defences.

Contractors for the EA are working through Malton and Norton, Sea Cut and Wheldrake.

The tree works are weather dependant and must end by the end of March, which is the start of the bird nesting season.

Watercourse Walk-throughs

The watercourse walk through generally comprise of a team of men walking the length of watercourse clearing any vegetation or blockages by hand. They tend to be on the small watercourses such as Priorpot Beck, Mill Beck, Hovingham Beck, etc.

It is aimed to complete the planned walkthroughs by the end of March.

Projects 2017-18

River Seven flood bank repairs should be starting spring/summer.

Vale of Pickering Modelling Study is currently ongoing and should be completed by summer 2017.

With regard to the 2015 Flood recover projects in Ryedale, all have been completed except for Mauden Grove Culvert where the upstream brick head wall is awaiting repair.

If anyone has any queries regarding the above, the please contact Ian Cooke, Derwent and Esk Catchment Lead. Email ian.cooke@environment-agency.gov.uk.

Emily Mellalieu updated the Group on North Yorkshire County Council's work to date.

·         During the last quarter the focus of the FRM team has been completing Section 19 investigations following the Boxing Day floods, which will be published on 24 February 2017. Whilst Malton was impacted by the flooding, it was felt that funding would be better utilised progressing the findings of the ARUP report.

·         Mouchel has been approached to further the work of the ARUP report and progress towards the Business Case for EA FDGIA funding.

·         In partnership with RDC, NYCC is part funding a CCTV monitoring survey to understand the drainage system in Old Malton.

·         In the past year, NYCC has delivered approximately £750,000 of property level resilience grants across north Yorkshire. In Ryedale, the value of approved applications is approx. £45,000.

·          The deadline for submission of invoices for Property Resilience Grants is 31 March 2017

This raised the following questions:

Was a draft programme of work from the ARUP report available?

Outcomes from this report are currently part of the EA 6 year programme, and is eligible to receive £1.2m in flood defence grant in aid. This unfortunately leaves a shortfall of £1.8m to enable delivery of the scheme. NYCC has committed to a continuation the work, to enable progression and if successful with the bid to the LEP, the scheme would have the opportunity to develop more quickly.

The ARUP report was an investigation and options appraisal, and requires further work to progress towards a business case and detailed design.

It may be possible to deliver a solution in Old Malton which would not effect the overall cost/benefit measures of the overarching project.

If NYCC were unsuccessful in its bid for funding from the LEP, what other options were available?

An approach to stakeholders such as businesses and landowners could be made, given the potential benefits of the project. Additional funding opportunities would continue to be explored by all RMA’s.

Were there any plans to tackle the issues in Brawby?

NYCC's responsibility is towards the investigation of flood incidents, with the agreed local FRM strategy prioritising work towards locations with the highest numbers of internally flooded properties. Historically, NYCC has looked at  the location and the situation in Brawby has been identified and is understood. NYCC does not have any additional responsibility with regards to this issue and this message has been delivered.

The Group encouraged Mouchel to contact and work with the IDB to take advantage of their historical knowledge.

In response to a question regarding the development at Eden Farm, Phil Fisher of the IDB explained how the balancing pond works and the possible reasons for the amount of standing water in the area at the moment.

In her absence, Eve Pierrepont sent the following update;

"If any questions come up for Yorkshire Water I will happily provide responses to circulate to the group.

On the 26 January 2017 YW met with representatives from Ryedale District Council, North Yorkshire County Council, Network Rail and Selwood Pump Hire in Malton to agree a design for the Malton under track crossing, which will enable emergency pumping to take place during a flood event without road closure or railway related safety issues. Network Rail are currently working on a detailed design, and aim to begin construction in April 2017.

YW have arranged for pumps to be permanently located at Ryedale's depot in Malton and also at Boroughbridge fire station.

Yorkshire Water are working on a DAP (Drainage Area Plan) for Malton. A DAP is a detailed verified sewer network model. We install flow monitors into the sewers to monitor the flows under different weather conditions. The model will tell us how our network performs under different rainfall conditions, and will predict which man holes sewer flooding will occur from, and what the volume might be.

Once built we can use the model to get a better understanding of the Malton catchment. We expect the model to be complete by March 2018."

It was questioned whether the sewer study was duplicating work done by other agencies. NYCC assured the Group that Yorkshire Water was liaising with NYCC and other partners to minimise the risk of duplication. This study would not monitor the flow of surface water under the A64.

It was requested that the partner agencies in the Group brought pressure to bear on Yorkshire Water to resolve the situation at Brawby.

Phil Fisher gave an update from the Internal Drainage Board.

Under Public Sector Agreements the IDB had undertaken the following work;

·         Cleared a stretch of Costa Beck at Pickering, bringing a formerly lifeless watercourse back to life in a matter of months. It was hoped to extend this work along the Beck

·         Weed cutting from Ganton to Yedingham

·         Clearance of Critical Ordinary Watercourses at Hovingham, Slingsby etc will start soon to restore Marrs Beck and Spring Beck on behalf of the EA

·         Due to remove the damaged footbridge at Slingsby Carr/Wath Beck for NYCC Highways

·         Hoping to clear the watercourse in Westfields above Priorpott Beck, Norton

·         The issue with the concrete at Brompton road bridge has been resolved

·         Assisting the EA with the restoration project at Yedingham on Stockdale's land with no risk of flooding on surrounding land

·         The IDB continues to urge Government to take farming concerns into account when considering Natural Flood Management

The Group requested that the IDB examine the ditch along the road from Great Barugh to Normanby as it appeared that the ditch was overflowing and allowing water on the road.

The Group also requested that the IDB sought assurance from the EA that repairs to flood defences as a result of burrowing animal damage were being undertaken as part of their maintenance programme.

Beckie Bennett gave the Group a précis of the recommendations of the Scrutiny Committee review of the role of the Council in Flood Management.

This included the commitment to a Grant Fund of £50,000 to support local flood solutions. Parish, Town Councils and community groups were encouraged to submit expressions of interest to the fund, at which point partners would assist in identifying the best solution to the particular issue.

A draft Terms of Reference for the Group had been drafted and would be issued to Group members for comment.

Cllr Potter gave the Group the following summary of the EFRA committee inquiry: Future Flood Prevention.

The cross party EFRA committee Future Flood Prevention report was published on 2 November 2016.  In my opinion, it was an excellent report with many common sense recommendations.  Key points:

Ÿ  It recognises increased risk from climate change of more frequent and intense storms and therefore flooding.

Ÿ  The current level of funding is unlikely to deliver sufficient protection in future decades. The Government must publish by the end of 2017 its 25-year ambition for flood risk reduction and the cost of securing this against different climate change scenarios.

Ÿ  Current flood risk management structures are fragmented, inefficient and ineffective, so we propose a new governance model which the Government must consider as part of a root and branch review of how it manages England’s flood risk.

Ÿ  DEFRA should commission by July 2017 a large-catchment trial of the effectiveness of natural flood risk management

Ÿ  Farmland should be used in some places to store flood water. NFU and DEFRA to develop storage approaches with low impact on farm productivity and appropriate incentives to recompense farmers

Ÿ  Provision for channel maintenance and, where it’s appropriate, to dredge

Ÿ  Flood risk communications must be simplified

Ÿ  Flood Resilience must be improved

Ÿ  Government must make developers who fail to comply with planning requirements liable for the costs of flooding

Ÿ  Annual summary of those developments approved contrary to EA advice

Ÿ  Water companies should be made statutory consultees on planning applications, and the right to connect surface water to a sewerage system should be removed

Ÿ  Unless a voluntary code is finalised this year, the Government must amend Building Regulations to make use of flood resistant materials in new buildings mandatory

Ÿ  How SuDS are deployed in new developments. CIWEM quote widespread SuDS uptake in England are not from cost or practicality but from policy and institutional barriers. 

Ÿ  In a follow up on 24 January 2017, the committee criticised the Government and DEFRA for missing opportunities to act on its report.   DEFRA has not committed to taking forward key recommendations. 

Ÿ  The acting Chair of the EFRA Committee said: "People living in areas of flood risk need to be reassured that the Government is acting to improve our disjointed flood management system. DEFRA has failed to give sufficient justification for its rejection of our recommendations for important new measures to improve flood protection. Ministers must give us more detailed information on how the Government is using its £2.5 billion flood defence budget to slow the flow of water across river catchments, so as to stop communities flooding in future."

Full report link at: https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmenvfru/115/115.pdf

Jan follow up link from: https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmenvfru/926/92602.htm

The next meeting will be held at 6.00 pm on 28 June 2017.