Agenda item

To consider a joint report by the Head of Highways and Environmental Services & the Senior Engineer (copy enclosed) which presents Members with the draft Rhyl Coastal Defence Assessment report, commissioned by the Council after the December 2013 coastal floods.

10.10 a.m. to 10.45 a.m.

A copy of a joint report by the Head of Highways and Environmental Services (HHES) and the Senior Engineer, which presented Members with the draft Rhyl Coastal Defence Assessment report commissioned by the Council after the December, 2013 coastal floods, had been circulated with the papers for the meeting.

The Committee had considered Denbighshire’s Local Flood Risk Management Strategy in December, 2014 and had expressed a wish to view the Rhyl Coastal Defence Assessment; to understand the Welsh Government (WG) and National Resource Wales (NRW) responses to it, and to consider the implications in terms of any works that might be required, and the availability of potential funding streams.

The HHES introduced the report which outlined the nature of the Rhyl Coastal Defence Assessment, the main conclusions, subsequent discussions with NRW, property flooding rates, schemes to mitigate risk and funding details.

The Lead Member for Public Realm and the HHES referred to the report and the consultant's report on the Rhyl Coastal Defence Assessment, emphasising that the report by its nature was a very technical report.  The report had been commissioned in the wake of the December, 2013 coastal flooding incident to assess the likely inundation caused by a 1 in 200 year event and the likely recurrence of such a severe weather event.  It was explained that first reading the consultant's report may cause alarm, however its assessments had been based on a combination of weather, marine and astronomical events all happening at the same time, which would be an extremely rare occurrence.

In responding to Members' questions the officers:-

·  detailed the flood alleviation and coastal defence works carried out to date since the 2013 flooding event and the proposed work to be commenced before the end of the current calendar year, all of which had been well received by local residents.  All these works would reduce the risk profile for severe coastal flooding in the area, nevertheless the risk could never be completely eradicated;

·  provided an overview of how the proposed scheme would work, under which the golf course would be used as a flood water containment site during times of severe flooding.  It was emphasised that the scheme had been developed in consultation with the Golf Club and due to the reasons why water would need to be contained there during an emergency, there should not be any recourse by the Club for recompense for damage to the greens during an extraordinary weather event;

·  the proposed North Wales Tidal Energy lagoon, if constructed, would further reduce the risk of sea water overtopping the coastal defences as it would reduce the size and power of the waves that hit the shoreline.  However, this would not be built in the near future therefore other measures had to be taken to reduce the risk from the sea for the short to medium term;

·  explained the various funding schemes accessed by the Council to finance emergency flood response and alleviation work in the past;

·  outlined the work undertaken to advise residents on how to protect their properties in the event of small scale flooding and to reassure them of the work underway to reduce the risk of major floods in future;

·  confirmed that there were Flood Wardens already in place in the Rhyl area but more work needed to be undertaken with them to assist them to raise residents' awareness of what to do in the event of a flood;

·  verified that the Council was also working with insurance companies etc. to explain the likely risk of flooding in the area and therefore assist residents to access affordable house and contents insurance;

During the ensuing discussion Members suggested that in future it may be useful if more use was made of the media/social media for alerting people of imminent flooding.  It was also felt that it would be worthwhile to communicate, in conjunction with other stakeholders, a positive message to residents highlighting how in austere times the Council was investing heavily in flood alleviation measures in a bid to protect vulnerable people and highlighting the good partnership working that was taking place between all stakeholders to deliver this work.

RESOLVED – that the Committee:-

(a)  receive and note the contents of the report.

(b)  notes, for clarity purposes, that the overtopping frequencies quoted in the report were not synonymous with the "property flooding frequency" figures, typically used in Welsh Government assessments of risk, and

(c) endorses the development of the flood risk mitigation schemes currently being progressed by the County Council.