Issue - meetings

To receive the final report from the Overview and Scrutiny Flooding Task and Finish Study – TO FOLLOW.

Executive Councillor: J Neish.

The Cabinet has

a)  agreed to publicise links to flooding advice through the District Council’s own communication channels and forward the advice to all Town and Parish Councils;

b)  supported the principle that the Council works with the County Council to support the establishment of local flood groups as a means to develop community resilience against future flooding and as an important additional source of information for forecasting flooding;

c)  endorsed the suggestion for a study to be undertaken by a group of technical experts to understand fully the causes of floods linked to climate change, to look at the issue of cumulative impacts and to make a series of recommendations to feed into the next SPD document review, ensuring the refreshed document responds to changing realities and technology;

d)  agreed to work with Cambridgeshire County Council and other partners to create a case conference system to evaluate technical advice on flood mitigation on those most complex applications,

e)  agreed to collaborate with partners on the development of a joint drainage and waste water management plan, and

f)  endorsed the Council’s support in assisting the County Council in its project to map local water courses and call for this mapping activity to begin with Huntingdonshire.

The Cabinet received and noted the final report from the Overview and Scrutiny Flooding Task and Finish Study (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) which had been established by the Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Customers and Partnerships).

In the absence of the Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Customers and Partnerships) whom had previously confirmed his attendance to present the report, the Cabinet agreed to consider the findings in his absence rather than to delay consideration of the report to the Cabinet’s September meeting. Whereupon, the Cabinet

RESOLVED

a)  to agree to publicise links to flooding advice through the District Council’s own communication channels and forward the advice to all Town and Parish Councils;

b)  to support the principle that the Council works with the County Council to support the establishment of local flood groups as a means to develop community resilience against future flooding and as an important additional source of information for forecasting flooding;

c)  to endorse the suggestion for a study to be undertaken by a group of technical experts to understand fully the causes of floods linked to climate change, to look at the issue of cumulative impacts and to make a series of recommendations to feed into the next SPD document review, ensuring the refreshed document responds to changing realities and technology;

d)  to work with Cambridgeshire County Council and other partners to create a case conference system to evaluate technical advice on flood mitigation on those most complex applications,

e)  to collaborate with partners on the development of a joint drainage and waste water management plan, and

f)  to endorse the Council’s support in assisting the County Council in its project to map local water courses and call for this mapping activity to begin with Huntingdonshire.

The Panel is invited to comment on the report of the Overview and Scrutiny Flooding task and Finish Group and approve its submission to the Cabinet.