Questions received from Councillor Adams
Question 1
Flooding in Arnold
The recent awful flooding in Arnold, apparently brought about as a result of the Gedling Borough Council maintained lagoon bursting its banks for the 3rd time in 10 years despite this supposedly being ‘a once in 50 x year event’, has raised huge concerns locally around the ability of the council to properly protect the welfare and wellbeing of its residents. I wonder how many times do residents on Bentwell Avenue in particular, the elderly, families with young children and other vulnerable residents, have to resort to their house insurers (where possible) to try and restore normality to their home, before the council properly exercises its responsibilities, acts positively and stops blaming the weather and indeed everyone else. When I personally attended on site at the lagoon, even my untrained eye could see that it was thick with silt and massively overgrown with trees and large shrubs. It certainly did not give the impression of a well maintained site. Can the Leader of the Council therefore explain details of the schedule of maintenance for the lagoon and brook that leads to the bottom of the gardens on Bentwell Avenue and confirm how that is complied with and checked by officers, and verified as sufficiently operable by those with appropriate expertise, including Nottinghamshire County Council as the Lead Flood Authority and/or the Environment Agency?
Question 2
Neighbourhood Police Team
During the 2019 local election campaign, Labour election literature committed to specifically providing the Gedling area with 5 additional police officers. The leaflet, promoted by the Deputy Leader Michael Payne, specifically stated "We will create a new local neighbourhood policing team – putting 5 additional police officers back on our streets". Can the Leader confirm as to how this Labour Administration intends to carry out that pledge and outline exactly which authority or legislation gives a District Council the power or indeed ability, to usurp the role of the Chief Constable in allocating additional Police Officers to the Gedling area and to determine their duties and responsibilities.
Minutes:
Questions received from Councillor Adams
Question 1
Flooding in Arnold
The recent awful flooding in Arnold, apparently brought about as a result of the Gedling Borough Council maintained lagoon bursting its banks for the 3rd time in 10 years despite this supposedly being ‘a once in 50 x year event’, has raised huge concerns locally around the ability of the council to properly protect the welfare and wellbeing of its residents. I wonder how many times do residents on Bentwell Avenue in particular, the elderly, families with young children and other vulnerable residents, have to resort to their house insurers (where possible) to try and restore normality to their home, before the council properly exercises its responsibilities, acts positively and stops blaming the weather and indeed everyone else. When I personally attended on site at the lagoon, even my untrained eye could see that it was thick with silt and massively overgrown with trees and large shrubs. It certainly did not give the impression of a well maintained site. Can the Leader of the Council therefore explain details of the schedule of maintenance for the lagoon and brook that leads to the bottom of the gardens on Bentwell Avenue and confirm how that is complied with and checked by officers, and verified as sufficiently operable by those with appropriate expertise, including Nottinghamshire County Council as the Lead Flood Authority and/or the Environment Agency?
Answer from Councillor Clarke
Madame Mayor, it appears that Councillor Adams is not entirely clear on the roles that the borough and county councils have in relation to flood management, so perhaps I can take this opportunity to clarify this for him.
Nottinghamshire County Council are the Lead Local Flood Authority, and play a leading role in emergency planning and recovery after a flood event. They also investigate significant local flooding incidents, and publish the results of these investigations in what is known as a section 19 report under the requirements of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.
Gedling Borough Council is a category one responder under the Civil Contingencies Act This means we must have plans in place to respond to emergencies and control or reduce the impact of an emergency.
A section 19 report was issued by Nottinghamshire County Council in August. It reported that:
“Between the 10th and 12th of June a significant amount of rain was recorded as falling on the Arnold area, with 92mm recorded over the three days, and with 59mm of that falling on the 11th alone. The average rainfall for the month of June in Nottingham is 64mm. This excessive rainfall resulted in 24 residential properties and 20 businesses experiencing significant internal flooding.”
“The attenuation area is maintained by Gedling Borough Council with a Severn Trent Water surface water sewer permitted to flow into and out of it. When functioning correctly the attenuation area collects water from the Severn Trent surface water network upstream and discharges that water back into the surface water network.” “Following investigation, Severn Trent Water confirmed that the flow control device on the attenuation pond was working effectively.”
Turning specifically to your issues regarding the attenuation pond:
- Gedling Borough Council and Severn Trent Water are both responsible for the balancing pond.
- It incorporates a flow control mechanism that is designed to be self-maintaining with reed beds that keep the bank stable.
- This prevents erosion and allows the water to flow under normal circumstances slowly downstream.
- Before and after the floods, our officers inspected the site and there was no indication of any blockage or obstruction that would have interrupted the flow of water.
- Our officers cut the flat areas twice a year and regularly inspect the banks for loose materials.
- In October, as soon as the ecology calendar allows, GBC will clear the area to allow Severn Trent to enter and cleanse the central channel (which is their responsibility) returning the capacity to the maximum available.
- For clarity, Severn Trent have confirmed that by removing the trees and shrubs on the banks would add ‘very little’ extra capacity to that already available in the channel and the lagoon.
Madame Mayor, can I make it absolutely clear that this flooding event was created through the volume of rain that fell on Arnold over the three days in June, and was not due to the failure of the attenuation pond or lack of maintenance of the site.
Perhaps Councillor Adams would like to consider the impact that the lack of development of County Council-owned Rolleston Drive, with its large concrete surface area, contributed to surface water run-off issues in the Bentwell Avenue area.
Supplementary question from Councillor Adams
In response to a request to be sent the County Council report, Councillor Clarke said that this would be forwarded to Councillor Adams after the meeting.
Question 2
Neighbourhood Police Team
During the 2019 local election campaign, Labour election literature committed to specifically providing the Gedling area with 5 additional police officers. The leaflet, promoted by the Deputy Leader Michael Payne, specifically stated "We will create a new local neighbourhood policing team – putting 5 additional police officers back on our streets". Can the Leader confirm as to how this Labour Administration intends to carry out that pledge and outline exactly which authority or legislation gives a District Council the power or indeed ability, to usurp the role of the Chief Constable in allocating additional Police Officers to the Gedling area and to determine their duties and responsibilities.
Summary of response given by Councillor Payne
Madam Mayor, we fully intend to deliver on our manifesto pledge to ‘create a new local neighbourhood policing team - putting five additional police officers back on our streets.’
Councillor Adams asks about which legislation gives Gedling Borough Council the power or indeed ability to do this. I refer him to the specific provision under Section 92 of the Police Act 1996, which states the following:
‘The council of a county, district, county borough may make grants to any Police & Crime Commissioner whose police area falls wholly or partly within the council’s area.’
‘Grants under this section may be made unconditionally or, with the agreements of the chief officer of police for the police are concerned, subject to conditions.’
We have a proud track record of working in partnership with Nottinghamshire Police including through the existing agreement with them under the accreditation scheme, which has seen an increase in our Neighbourhood Wardens’ powers to deal with issues such as anti-social behaviour. Delivering on this pledge will be a joint effort between Gedling Borough Council and Nottinghamshire Police - just as we worked closely to deliver additional Special Constables on the streets of Gedling borough in the past, we will work closely to secure additional police officer resources through this project.
We will be working in partnership with Nottinghamshire Police to deliver on this important pledge of securing additional police resources for our local community - so let me be clear Madam Mayor, we have no intention of ‘usurping’ the role of the Chief Constable, in fact this is yet another example of us strengthening our relationship with the Chief Constable and Nottinghamshire Police by working together to protect the residents and communities of Gedling.