2007 Review - 2008 Plans
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Lewes Flood Action Executive
Maureen Messer, Chairman
Duncan Macpherson, Deputy Chairman
(Vacancy) Secretary
Joan Skeet, Treasurer
Peter Atkins
John Clarke
Derek Cleaver
John Cornwall
Tom Crossett
Wendy Johnson
Mike Scruby
Chairman's introduction
In the bleak winter of 2000/1 we thought that the weakness of our flood defences was an unfortunate oversight. "They" would be along in the spring to fix things by building better flood walls.
Seven years on we are beginning to know just how badly we misjudged the situation. Yes we still need the flood walls - urgently. We have a new modest wall round Malling Brooks. Another, defending Cliffe from the river, should be finished in 2011. Five other parts of the town, North Street, the Western Town centre, North Malling, Malling Deanery and the Pells, remain dangerously vulnerable to flooding by the Ouse with little hope of flood defences paid for by Government. Important though these flood walls are they are only a start. We need urgent action to protect us from the bigger flood risks, including rising sea levels, that climate change will bring. We also need effective action to protect us from the risks, such as surface water and sewers, that we did not fully understand in 2000. We now know that flood security for Lewes in the 21st century and beyond is complicated and needs action now in four main areas,
- Flood defences that keep water out of our homes and businesses;
- Helping vulnerable householders and businesses to cope with flooding should the worst happen;
- Development plans that do not allow the wrong kind of buildings in the floodplain;
- Insurance that we can afford.
In this report and review we tell you what we have been doing and what we think should happen next.
Getting that action is a big job for everyone in the town, not just the people who suffered in 2000 or are now in the firing line. Some valued members of Lewes Flood Action have retired recently and more will be doing so at the AGM on 10th January 2008. Please come to the meeting, volunteer, and get to work. Your town needs you!
Maureen Messer,
Chairman,
Lewes Flood Action.
12 December 2007
Priority areas - the flood challenges for Lewes.
1. Keeping water out of our homes and businesses. The improved flood walls proposed by the EA in 2002 remain a top priority. The enhanced walls will give us breathing space but the standards of protection that they give only modest protection. They will probably be offset by climate change within a lifetime. We need to get rainwater and high tides through or round Lewes without flooding the town. The Environment Agency looked at wider options in 2003 but discounted them because of cost or technical difficulty. We need to revisit these options in the light of the growing threat of climate change. Many things are relevant, channel widening and deepening in the town, diversions, a tidal barriers and changes in land use and water storage in the Ouse Valley. It will be a long haul but we need to start now if we are to find the right mix of solutions and a way of paying for it.
2. Helping vulnerable householders and businesses to cope with flooding. Unfortunately even when the new flood walls are in place there can be no guarantee that parts of the town will not flood. We need to be prepared. The EA has made us more aware of risk and is improving warnings. LDC has introduced a flood warden scheme and updated emergency planning. But much more needs to be done. We recognise the wide range views on individual responsibilities for flood resilience. Everyone would like the authorities to remove all risk. Some fear that individual acceptance of responsibility for flood resilience will dampen official ardour on flood defence. We all worry about the effect of transparency on flood risk on property prices. We all know that flooding is awful but some find comfort in denial. All these views are understandable and valid but they carry dangers of their own. The community needs to find the best compromise, so that all at risk can be prepared for the worst.
3. Development planning that reduces future liabilities. After the October 2000 flood the EA told us that the flood was a disaster because we had built so much in the floodplain since the disastrous flood in 1960. We had been overconfident about the improvements in flood defences that had been made in the seventies. The floodplain remains a very attractive place for development and planning applications for more than a thousand homes and businesses are in the pipeline. We need to be sure that if any of them is built they are safe for occupants, they do not increase flood risk to others or pre-empt other flood control measures.
4. Insurance. The late fifties Government's agreed with insurers that it would build flood defences if they pick up the pieces when things go wrong. Claims are now rising fast while work on new defences is falling behind needs. We need to keep pressure on both sides to find a solution.
2007 review and plans for 2008.
Lewes faces a formidable flood management challenge. What did LFA do about it in 2007 and what will it do about each of the problem areas?
Action to keep water out of our homes and businesses
Increased central Government funding for flood defence and resilience is the top priority. Despite the vigorous national campaign led by Sue Atkins and Angela McPherson, supported by Norman Baker and the Sussex Express and abetted by the massive wakeup call of the summer flooding produced very little. DEFRA funding will rise from £600 m in 06/07 to a minimum of £800m in 2010/11. This is far short of the £1 bn pa the 2004 Foresight Report Government Report said was needed to stabilise flood risk in the UK.
We shall work with other community flood groups to make Government increase flood funding above the minimum between now and 2011 and to take flooding much more seriously in the 2012 public expenditure survey.
Unfortunately many UK communities are at greater flood risk than most parts of Lewes. We respect their needs. Even a massive increase in Government funding would not deliver the flood walls that we need whilst ensuring that all defences are adequately maintained. We will explore other ways of financing short term flood defences. Contributions from property developers are the most obvious source but bargains mooted so far have been very poor. Developers have proposed modest defences without provision for maintenance in exchange for permission to build huge numbers of vulnerable properties in the floodplain. We shall continue to urge LDC to seek better deals in terms of standards of defence, maintenance bonds and flood resilient buildings.
The flood walls that we need so desperately give only modest standards of protection and areas protected are not acceptable for unrestricted development as defined in Government planning policy. They could be overtopped in exceptional conditions and their benefits could be negated by climate change within a hundred years or less.
The river is not the only flood threat. Inadequate and blocked drains together with impermeable surfaces are also a major threat, as many found to their cost this summer. Lewes is no exception. Councils, Southern Water, the EA and the people need to work better to secure a drainage system that is adequate and kept in good order. We welcome the fact that Lewes has been selected for an urban drainage pilot study and will press for early implementation of its findings. We shall also work with other community flood groups to make sure that Ofwat takes sewer flooding seriously in the 2009 Water Company Price Review, the present implicit standard of 1:15 for annual probability of sewer flooding is totally unacceptable.
Although we give priority to short term measures shall continue to press for a comprehensive and durable flood protection plan that is robust in relation to climate change. This must examine all options for reducing the probability of flooding and the plan must be based on sound evidence. We welcome therefore the steps that:
1. The EA is taking to produce a catchment flood management plan for the Ouse.
2. LDC is taking to produce a strategic flood risk assessment that will inform both its Local Development Framework and Document (LDF/LDD) and community preparation for flooding.
We will look at draft documents critically, encourage others to do likewise and press for action plans that deliver improvement as quickly as possible.
Helping householders and businesses to cope with flooding
There was little progress in 2007. This may be because of a lack of public demand for "non structural measures" for reasons already discussed. Funding is also limited by the low priority given to non structural measures in investment appraisal criteria and the new DEFRA output indicators. Our complaints to DEFRA on these weakness have gone unheeded but we shall encourage other community groups to join us in further action in the DEFRA stakeholder forum on this important but esoteric point. We shall also continue to press the EA to better estimates of flood risk house by house and business by business so that each of us has a better understanding of what actions are appropriate for our circumstances. We shall also press for better flood warnings, tailored to our lifestyles.
Development planning that reduces future flood risk
We welcome the recent tightening of government planning policy (PPS 25) but we are worried by weaknesses that appear to blur the responsibilities of the EA and planning authorities. We alarmed by the housing Minister's unbridled enthusiasm for building in the floodplain. Taken together these factors may allow irresponsible profit hungry developers to force inappropriate building in the floodplain before we know what extra risk is prudent and how much resilience should be built into new property.
We have complained to the housing minister about policy weaknesses and objected to development proposals that we consider inappropriate. We did not cut much ice with her, but are delighted that the Commons Environmental Audit Committee has take up our cause and today (29th October 2007) speaking of housing targets warned "It would be disastrous if as a result of inappropriate planning today these new developments become the climate slums of tomorrow."
The Environment Agency and Lewes District Council listed carefully to our carefully argued case against detailed planning consent for 125 homes and office space in Southdowns Road but granted detailed consent, partly for legal reasons. We remain convinced that this was a very bad decision that will create a danger to occupants and huge liability for Lewes if the buildings are completed. We shall continue to campaign against the development.
We believe that planning consent should not be given for any major developments in the floodplain should not be given until
1. the EA has completed the a catchment flood management plan for the Ouse that we referred to earlier.
2. LDC has completed the LDF/LDD fully informed by SFRA that we referred to earlier.
We shall contribute to the development of these two vital documents and are encouraging other residents' and amenity groups in Lewes to do likewise. To this end we have prepared briefings on quantitative estimates of flood risk to the main areas of Lewes and the possible effect of climate change on sea level. These have been circulated widely and used to support our comments on planning applications. Copies are available on request.
Insurance
After the summer of 2007 insurers believe that Government is not keeping its part of the bargain that that Government will build flood defences if insurers pick up the pieces when things go wrong. Insurers are calling for a new strategy for the floodplain based on;
- An investment programme that reflects climate change and the
real flood risks from rivers, coasts and drainage.
- Improved national leadership and coordination with national targets for reducing flood risk. A single national body should be responsible for flood management strategy to replace the current piecemeal approach.
- Stronger planning controls to ensure that new developments are not built in high flood-risk areas wherever possible.
If there is no progress towards the strategy insurers are threatening to withdraw from the bargain.
There is also big variation in the way in which individual insurance companies interpret the "principles" that the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has agreed with Government. We are between a rock and a hard place and many continue to suffer difficulties including extortionate premiums and excesses. The ABI advises those who are unhappy with their lot to shop around. But this is not easy for the elderly and vulnerable. Customers who leave insurers who have provided their cover for many years often find difficulty in finding replacements.
As we said earlier we shall, with others, press Government to take flooding more seriously. Progress would help to preserve UK insurance arrangements until they can be replaced by something better. We shall also press
1. the EA to provide better information on flood risk at individual property level in order to strengthen customer negotiating positions
2. the insurers collectively to assist the shopping around that they advocate.
Climate change
We know more about climate change and its implications that we did in 2000. Increased storminess, heavier winter rain and sea level rise are likely. We need to keep abreast of growing knowledge of climate change and take it into account in our preparations.
This report is also available for you to download as an MS Word document (1.4 Mb).
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