Agenda item

Environment Agency Update

(To receive a report from Deborah Campbell, (Environment Agency), which provides an update on Environment Agency activities, including progress on key capital schemes)

 

 

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report by Peter Reilly (Environment Agency), which provided an update on Environment Agency activities, including progress on key capital schemes.

 

Members were informed that there were now at least 5000 properties that were already protected to the highest standard as part of the on-going works to the Boston Barrier Scheme.

 

In response to a question, Members were informed that the Boston Haven Banks scheme had been slightly delayed but the Environment Agency were working with key partners to ensure that work continued to progress.

 

Consideration was then given to a presentation by Morgan Wray (Environment Agency), which provided Members with an insight into the flooding incident at Wainfleet in June 2019.

 

It was noted that  a medium flood risk had been forecast  for the week of the event, however rainfall proved to be  much more significant than had been expected.

 

Members were advised that 134mm of rain had fallen between the 10 June 2019 and the 12 June 2019, which was over twice the usual monthly average of rainfall. A breach in the southern bank of the Wainfleet Relief Channel had led to significant flooding in the area of Wainfleet and Thorpe St Peter.

 

Members were informed that once a full investigation of the incident had been completed, the Environment Agency and partner authorities would implement an action plan to make any necessary improvements going forward.

 

Officers thanked the Gold Command and the Fire and Rescue services for their amazing work during the incident.

 

Members were invited to ask questions, in which the following points were noted:

 

·       It was noted that the Gibraltar Point sluice gates operated a normal tidal outfall which was restricted for certain times of the day when the tide was high. Any future works would take this into consideration.

·       The Environment Agency were looking at the outfall of each sluice for the channels leading down to the sea in Wainfleet and the surrounding areas to see if there was any way to make minor changes to help that system flow altogether.

·       The sluices continued to discharge at the same rate at all stages of the tide during the flood.

·       The Environment Agency was currently carrying out a survey of channel and embankments to give a better understanding of silt in the water courses. The results would be communicated to the Wainfleet community once the survey had been completed.

·       It was noted that silt was removed in areas where it was considered that silt removal had a beneficial outcome.

·       It was agreed that Environment Agency Officers would investigate whether there was any spare capacity for flood  alleviation and circulate this to Members.

·       Members were advised that the likelihood of a breach was increased when flows exceeded the design capacity of the channel.  Exceedence  creates a greater risk of erosion and breach.

·       Officers advised that the river banks were made up of a poor quality material from an engineering perspective, but there had been no particular weak spots which had caused the issue.

·       The defences had performed up to the standard that they were designed to but once the banks had been exceeded this increased the risk of flooding.

·       Members were advised that the Environment Agency were looking at solutions to reduce the risk of a future incident.

 

As the elected representative for the Wainfleet Division, Councillor Mrs Wendy Bowkett reiterated the level of ongoing work by partners to help the Wainfleet residents, both during the incident and with ongoing recovery work.

 

RESOLVED:

 

          That the report and comments made be noted.

 

 

Supporting documents:

 

 
 
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