Information in this note is taken from a briefing for County Councillors given by County Council officers
Sources of flood risk and responsibilities
There are multiple sources of flood risk and multiple agencies and parties that have a responsibility for managing that risk, dependent on its source. For example, the Environment Agency (EA) is responsible for the management of flood risk from main rivers. I will forward again, for ease of reference, a poster I forwarded on 31st October, which might be useful in illustrating the complexity of the matter.
The County Council in its role as the Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA) is responsible for the coordination of management of flood risk. The LLFA is not responsible for, nor is it required by law, to resolve all flooding matters. The LLFA has not got a specific budget for flood alleviation. More information about the LLFA's statutory duties can be found in the Council's Flood Risk Management Strategy, which is available on the Council's website.
In its role as the Local Highway Authority (LHA) the County Council is responsible for the maintenance of highway drainage (assets that drain into the public highway such as gullies and highway drains) and has a limited budget for managing and maintaining those assets.
The response of the LLFA to flooding
The LLFA is not a first line responder; however, the immediate focus of the LLFA after a flood event is to aid recovery, first by gathering all relevant reports and available data and then bringing agencies together to identify causes and actions that could be taken to reduce the impacts of future events.
The LLFA will support the response by engaging at multi-agency meetings as well as attending the various enacted incident cells. The LLFA will also coordinate flood records used to inform the Government and, although not statutorily required to do so, will aid with welfare door knocking.
In cases where the number of properties flooded hits the relevant thresholds (five or more properties and there are multiple or unknown sources) the LLFA is required to undertake a formal investigation under Section 19 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. Many Section 19 investigations have been triggered by the storm on 6th January and Storm Henk in January 2024.
It is important to note that the LLFA will investigate all incidents of flooding irrespective of the formal investigation threshold being met.
The response of the LHA to flooding
The LHA's immediate response during a flood event is to close roads that are flooded and impassable and also to support the recovery and "clean up" activity.
Like the LLFA, the LHA will also attend multi-agency meetings and incident cells and undertake any investigations of its assets where issues are identified.
A part of the "clean up" exercise is for the LHA to cleans gullies to ensure they are clear of flood debris and silt.
The LHA will also undertake any maintenance necessary to flood damaged highway drainage assests.
Resource impacts on the LLFA
To respond as soon as possible to substantial flooding events the County Council's Flood Risk Management Team, which fulfils the Council's LLFA's duties, has to divert resource away from and delay current investigations and business as usual activities for a period of several weeks or months, such as :
Major planning application responses
Delivering the Lead Consent role under the Land Drainage Act of 1991
Delivering strategic work such as an updated "toolbox" of information to promote personal resilience ("Be Flood Ready") and riparian responsibilities, including an updated web site.
The LLFA currently has six outstanding Section 19 investigations, all from 2023 and 2024 flood events. Such investigations can take between one and two years to complete owing to the complexity of understanding the causes and modelling to establish whether a solution can be identified. The Storm Henk investigations may take considerably longer. Where there is a viable solution it can then take up to another two years to secure funding via the EA's processes.
Although it is not part of the statutory role of the LLFA there are a number of projects being progressed on a discretionary basis arising from Section 19 investigations. Several projects are at various stages of development. However, such projects are dependent on successful bids through the extensive EA bidding process and can take several years to come to fruition. As these projects are discretionary resources have to be diverted away from the work when there is a flood event, causing delay, and complaints and frustration from communities desperate for measures to protect them from future flooding.
In order to help reduce the impact on existing work and projects it is proposed to provide additional staffing at an anticipated cost of £240,000 (£20,000 for the remainder of 2024/25 and £220,000 for 2025/26).
It will still take time to complete Section 19 investigations and projects, but the additional staff should enable business as usual activities to be appropriately managed and the momentum maintained on projects to bring benefits to communities.
Resource impacts on the LHA
Weather events in recent years have had a severe impact on resources owing to the additional activities required, mentioned above.
Resources are budgeted on the basis that severe weather events are the exception rather than the norm. The additional workload in response to the storm on 6th January is estimated to have cost around £460,000 in 2024/25. A further provision of £700,000 has therefore been added to the Capital and Works Programmes for 2025/26 to help increase resilience and help manage the impacts of more frequent events.
A review of resource levels in the LHA's Highway Drainage Team is required to meet the workload. A review of the risk-based approach to gully cleansing priority is also required.
Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) provision for flood alleviation
Over the next four years the Council is proposing to invest £18.4 million on flood alleviation across both capital schemes and revenue activities.
National response
Although the 6th January storm resulted in record numbers of flooded properties across Leicestershire other areas of the country did not experience the same level of impact. The Government has not yet activated the National Flood Recovery Framework (NFRF), which gives communities access to various grants to aid with recovery from flooding. The Council will continue to lobby the Government and write to the local MPs to highlight the significant hardship residents and business owners in Leicestershire are facing.
In the absence of an activated NFRF for the recent flooding it is proposed to allocate £20,000 in 2024/25 and £80,000 in 2025/26 to the LLFA to use at its discretion for communities to be resilient to future flood events.
Community readiness
The LLFA has a "Be Flood Ready: Aware, Prepared and Engaged" Strategy and is engaging with communities on flood investigations and prevention.
Gullies
Gullies often receive an additional clean after a flooding event because, as flood water recedes into the drainage system it naturally draws in flood debris and silt, particularly around the gulley grates. This can easily lead people to believe that the gulley was blocked and caused the flooding.
The 6th January storm saw record river levels,which submerged outfalls and overwhelmed systems. In such situations the systems will back up and surcharge out of the gullies as the water has no outfall.
Do new housing developments cause flooding?
During the planning stage developers must demonstrate that the drainage run off from their completed site is not greater than the run off from the site in its original/greenfield state. To do this, the developer will design and build flood attenuation measures, such as ponds that receive the water from the site and release the water off site into a watercourse/drainage system at a slower and more controlled rate.
The speed of completion of Section 19 Flood Investigations
Where actions/solutions are identified during an investigation the LLFA will look to take this up with the responsible Risk Management Authority (RMA) at the earliest opportunity. The LLFA does not wait until the report is published before raising actions with RMAs.
There may not always be a clear and viable solution identified. In some cases property level protection may be the only viable option. This is a hard message for residents to hear and why it is important for them to be "Flood Ready" and know their flood risk.
National policy
The County Council continues to press for change in how water and flood matters are regulated and addressed in England, given that flooding is becoming the norm. The mechanisms to address, where feasible, are extremely cumbersome. The Council is active in seeking to influence national policy and responsible agencies and partners to address issues relating to flooding such as activation of the NFRF, the process for obtaining the National Flood Grant (NFG).
End of note
Flood Risk