Agenda and minutes

To receive declarations of interest (if any)

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm the non-exempt minutes of the meeting of the Improvement and Scrutiny Committee – Places held on 22 November 2023.

The minutes of the meeting held on 22 November 2023 were confirmed as a correct record.

(Questions may be submitted to be answered by the Scrutiny Committee, or Council officers who are attending the meeting as witnesses, on any item that is within the scope of the Committee. Please see the procedure for the submission of questions at the end of this agenda)

There were no public questions.

Chris Henning, Executive Director – Place and Richard Ward, Senior Project Engineer, introduced the report and presentation outlining the work that had been done by the County Council before, during and after Storm Babet, with the aim to contribute to improving future preparation, response and recovery.

In addition to County Council officers, officials from other relevant organisations were present at the meeting to be able to respond to questions where these fell outside the scope of the County Council’s duties.

All Risk Management Authorities were involved in the immediate recovery as well as post Storm Babet. Seven Multi-Agency drop in sessions had been carried out across the County since the storm. The County Council’s Flood Team had also attended dozens of site visits with residents, members, MPs and other agencies, as well as managing the Property Flood Resilience Grant Fund.

As part of the ongoing work, the County Council was undertaking a Section 19 Flooding Investigation, which was being undertaken by its Professional Services Partner, Jacobs Consulting, due to be completed early Summer. Once all of the investigatory work had been completed, which would include the Section 19 Flooding Investigation, the Flood Team, along with all other professional partners, could start to plan as to how future mitigation solutions could be realised. All Risk Management Authorities had been consulted and had an input into the ongoing investigation.

It had been agreed by Committee members that once a draft report on the ongoing Section 19 Flooding Investigation was complete, it be brought back to the Committee to provide an update.

Officers from the relevant external organisations were working to do their own investigations and lessons learnt following Storm Babet as well as investigating where further funding could be sourced for preventative measures in the future.

Committee members had been advised to encourage their constituents to sign up to become flood wardens, a free service to join that allowed officers to be in direct contact with the community.

RESOLVED that the Committee:

a) Takes account of the information provided in the report and presentation in its scrutiny of the work that was done by the County Council before, during and after Storm Babet, and to contribute to improving future preparation, response and recovery.

b) Note that in addition to County Council officers, officials from other relevant organisations were present at the Improvement and Scrutiny Committee and were able to respond to questions where these fell outside the scope of the County Council’s duties.

The Committee’s current work programme was presented and Committee Members made a number of suggestions for possible agenda items for the municipal year 2024-25. The Committee wished to see agenda items on Active Travel, Public Rights of Way as well as Crich Parking Enforcement. The Chair emphasised the need for the item on Public Rights of Way to come to the Committee as a priority as this had been a long standing item on the work programme.

The Chair was due to meet with Chris Henning, Executive Director – Place, following the meeting to discuss the forward plan.