Meeting documents

To consider a report of the Director (MC), (Reference 22/97), to be

supplemented by a presentation at the meeting.

The Chair introduced the item and welcomed the Head of Projects, Mr Chris Bourne, to the meeting.

Mr Bourne provided to Committee a presentation, summarised as follows:-

Ø  History of flooding: following the major flood events of 2002 and 2007, various investigations into causes and solutions were carried out. These studies confirmed flooding in Filey was caused by the complex interaction of overland flows from the catchment surrounding the town, the surface water runoff within the town, and the urban drainage system.

Ø  Project Steering Group: The solution to the flooding therefore needed a multi-agency approach. The Project Steering Group was set up to help the partnership working and included representatives from Scarborough Borough Council, Filey Town Council, North Yorkshire County Council, the Environment Agency, Yorkshire Water, and the Filey Flood Working Group.

Ø  Overview: the solution was to construct a series of bunds and swales around the outskirts of Filey’s key locations. These were Parish Fields, Sycamore Avenue, and Wharfdale.

Ø  Land Ownerships: One of the greatest challenges to delivering the scheme was that SBC did not own the land needed to build the scheme, which took a long period of time to purchase.

Ø  Timeline: these projects were not quickly delivered and took from 2007 to 2021 to complete. Setting the schemes up, designing the scheme, approvals, and receiving funding took the majority of the time whereas the construction period was as small as 10% of the overall timeline.

Ø  Benefits realisation:

o   There were now new flood defences

o   Flooding reduced to 494 households

o   167 households moved from very significant risk to moderate or low

o   Additional funding to construct Environmental Enhancements

Ø  What went well:

o   Attracted significant external funding

o   Risks minimised with a staged approach

o   Improvements to disused long jump pit at Ebor Academy

o   Design unobtrusively blends into the surrounding rural landscape

Ø  Lessons Learned

o   Significant external funding required

o   Third party land difficult to acquire

o   Long period of time required to deliver the project

o   Complex planning requirements

o   Third party consent required

o   Covid pandemic related issues

o   Weather and ground conditions

Ø  Project issues:

o   Amendments to design

o   Excess cut and fill material retained on site

o   Storage areas designed to fall below Reservoirs Act

o   Developers constructed areas

o   Services diversions

Mr Bourne concluded his presentation and invited questions.

The Chair asked whether there would be any implications for future planning applications regarding hard standings and over paved areas due to their influence on flooding. Mr Bourne explained that planning requirements already existed in this regard and that as statutory consultee it was recommended that permeable pavement was used.

Cllr Cockerill endorsed the projects achievements but noted the length of time it took to complete the project had been long due to the various factors listed in Mr Bourne’s presentation. He also emphasised the benefits gained from the inclusion of local Councillors and residents into the scheme’s development. He recounted a resident’s story that exemplified the success of the FFAW’s.

The Chair enquired into whether the amount of water storage was sufficient and whether the water systems were capable of handling the water once released from storage. Mr Bourne replied that throughout the development Officer’s monitored storage areas and compared the findings to the online models. Officers found that that after rainfall the storage areas matched the estimations precisely and worked as intended. He added that excess storage was created in order to plan for worsening rainfall caused climate change.

The Chair asked what maintenance and monitoring had been put in place, to which Mr Bourne said it was funded through the original plan.

RESOLVED: that the update on the Filey Flood Alleviation Scheme is welcomed and received.