Agenda item

Report of the Head of Planning, Transportation and Environment (PTE/22/10) seeking approval to submit an Outline Business Case to deliver a Flood Resilience Partnership project across Devon (funded by Government’s Flood & Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme), attached.

An Impact Assessment is also attached for the attention of Members at the meeting and can also be found at Flood Resilience: Managing Big Problems in Small Places Project - Impact Assessment (devon.gov.uk).

RESOLVED

(a) that Devon County Council leads a Partnership to develop an Outline Business Case to deliver a flood resilience partnership project across Devon “Managing Big Problems in Small Places in Rapid Response type Catchments”;

(b) that the Head of Planning, Transportation and Environment in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Public Health, Communities and Equality be given delegated authority to approve the details of the project, allocation of funding, and the preparation of collaboration agreements with partners covering the delivery stage of the project; and

(c) that the submission of the Outline Business Case to the Environment Agency to bid for funding to the amount of £7,608,000 from the Flood & Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme for the delivery of the project be approved, noting that the submission includes match funding secured from the County Council and partners by way of staff time and potentially financial contributions.

(Councillors Brazil and Hannaford attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(2) and spoke to this item).

The Cabinet considered the Report of the Head of Planning, Transportation and Environment (PTE/22/10) which sought approval to submit an Outline Business Case to deliver a Flood Resilience Partnership project across Devon (funded by Government’s Flood & Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme),circulated prior to the meeting in accordance with regulation 7(4) of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012.

The Report outlined that in the 2020 Budget, DEFRA had announced a new programme of funding for innovative projects to help communities be more resilient to flooding and coastal change. The programme, managed by the Environment Agency, allocated £150 million to 25 partnership projects across England through a competitive process. The Council and Partners had been selected to develop a project which would increase flood resilience at a catchment level within communities in rapid response ‘type’ catchments where traditional flood defences were shown not to be appropriate or cost beneficial.

Devon had a long history of flash flooding in rapidly responding catchments and the allocation of funding nationally, based on number of properties affected, did not reflect the very real risks and issues in Devon. The project sought to address several challenges and pre-existing barriers to delivering flood resilience in rapid response type catchments, for example the effects of climate change, lack of a single source of information on flood events and flood resilience, current definitions of a Rapid Response Catchment, which does not pick up key Rapid Response Catchment communities, communityengagement in flood risk issues and no provision for surface water flood warnings within current systems.

The project had a number of objectives including empowering local communities to participate in the development, delivery, monitoring, maintenance and ownership of flood resilience interventions, installation of Property Flood Resilience measures in community assets, enhance existing warning systems, identify & develop alternative funding models, develop new spatial planning tools and approaches, improve and embed flood resilience in planning and land use policies and decisions and deliver robust and replicable learning.

There were eighteen partners and all were delivery agents of the project. However, the Council was the lead partner responsible for the delivery of the project to time, quality, and budget in compliance with the funding programme requirements.

The estimated cost(s) of the proposals and funding sources/budgets was £7,608,000. The Council would also provide a proportion of staff time towards the project. In addition, staff time would be provided by Partners as part of the programming, delivery & monitoring of the interventions.

A first tranche of funding of the value of £656,000 was released in August 2021 to help project partners develop the project further, undertake feasibilities studies and produce the Outline Business Case. The remaining amount would be released over the next 5 financial years once the Outline Business Case had been approved.

By using nature-based solutions, the interventions would reduce the risk of flooding. The nature-based solutions also had the potential to increase water quality of watercourses, create new and diverse wildlife habitats and provide additional carbon sequestration.  Overall, the project would have a positive benefit to biodiversity and climate change.

For each pilot community intervention, project partners leading the intervention would undertake an environmental impact considerations assessment.

The Head of Service’s Report also incorporated an Impact Assessment for the attention of Members at the meeting, which was also available at Flood Resilience: Managing Big Problems in Small Places Project - Impact Assessment (devon.gov.uk). This highlighted that part of the project was to consider innovative way of engaging participating communities which would include debiasing the approach to community engagement. Accessible communication standards would be used and additional support or alternative formats where required. The project would trial flood resilience solutions to targeted locations in Devon, the solutions implemented and piloted would directly affect local communities and the assessment would ensure the approach used to deliver flood resilience solutions would help manage any potential effects on communities, local economic conditions, individuals and vulnerable/potentially vulnerable groups.

The Cabinet noted that the project presented the Council with a unique opportunity to inform Government on future flood risk management policies and support the implementation of a National Strategy.

The matter having been debated and the options and/or alternatives and other relevant factors (e.g. financial, sustainability (including carbon impact), risk management, equality and legal considerations and Public Health impact) set out in the Head of Service’s Report and/or referred to above having been considered:

it was MOVED by Councillor Croad, SECONDED by Councillor Twiss, and

RESOLVED

(a) that Devon County Council leads a Partnership to develop an Outline Business Case to deliver a flood resilience partnership project across Devon “Managing Big Problems in Small Places in Rapid Response type Catchments”;

(b) that the Head of Planning, Transportation and Environment in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Public Health, Communities and Equality be given delegated authority to approve the details of the project, allocation of funding, and the preparation of collaboration agreements with partners covering the delivery stage of the project; and

(c) that the submission of the Outline Business Case to the Environment Agency to bid for funding to the amount of £7,608,000 from the Flood & Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme for the delivery of the project be approved, noting that the submission includes match funding secured from the County Council and partners by way of staff time and potentially financial contributions.

(NB: The Impact Assessment referred to above may be viewed alongside Minutes of this meeting and at Flood Resilience: Managing Big Problems in Small Places Project - Impact Assessment (devon.gov.uk)).