Question from Cllr Whiting to the Leader of the Council:
- How will Gedling Borough Council ensure that any lessons from the handling of the recent flooding event in Colwick and elsewhere in the borough are learned?
Question from Cllr Whiting to the Portfolio Holder for Climate Change and Natural Habitat:
- How much has been spent topping up the surface of the car park at Colwick Rec in the past 3 years - and when will it be properly resurfaced?
Minutes:
A question was asked of the Leader of the Council from Councillor Whiting:
“How will Gedling Borough Council ensure that any lessons from the handling of the recent flooding event in Colwick and elsewhere in the borough are learned?”
Response from Councillor Clarke:
Madam Mayor, first of all may I record my sympathies for the residents who have experienced this and previous flooding events, as they have had a devastating impact on families.
Can I also pass on my thanks to Gedling Borough Council officers and all of the agencies involved in the recovery and clean-up operations across the borough.
In terms of lessons learnt, there are three mechanisms through which the latest flooding event will be reviewed.
1) The Local Resilience Forum Flood Group will hold a multi-agency debrief to review the response and a list of recommendations and learning points will come from this.
2) Nottinghamshire County Council as lead local flood authority will produce a section 19 report for flooding sites, and Gedling Borough Council officers will provide local data, information and intelligence to the County to directly feed into this report. Once finalised by the County Council, the report will then highlight as best it can the mechanisms of the flooding (in terms of the how and why the flood event happened) and will make appropriate recommendations for all partners to consider.
3) Gedling Borough Council also holds its own internal debrief following a flood event, from which an action plan is created and reported to the internal Strategic Resilience Group for monitoring and action.
May I also remind the Chamber that the Leadership brought a motion regarding flooding to the last council meeting. As a direct result of that motion, this Council has made written representations to the Secretary of State and central government calling for additional investment in flood defence and infrastructure work to ensure as far as possible that similar suffering and loss will be prevented for this and future generations of Gedling residents.
A question was asked of the Portfolio Holder for Climate Change and Natural Habitat from Councillor Whiting:
“How much has been spent topping up the surface of the car park at Colwick Rec in the past 3 years - and when will it be properly resurfaced?”
Response from Councillor V McCrossen:
Thanks for the question, I do believe that the previous ward councillor was also a great advocate for the Colwick Rec and asked the same question previously. The Colwick Rec car park surface is regularly topped-up with conglomerate gravel, which we use to fill potholes to create an even surface that is rolled and tampered down, and we can see this is not a long-term solution.
Over the past 3 years, I can confirm that we have spent a total of £1,125 in doing that. As I am sure you are aware, the car park has seen quite a significant usage recently and we know in part this is due to the introduction of car park charges at Colwick Park by the city council, so people are clearly coming over the rec to park. Also, the relocation of some football teams, particularly at weekends, is making this very busy which adds to the wear and tear on that area.
Officers are aware of the need for works on the car park, including drainage and tarmacking which would cost in estimate between £70k to £75k, so a significant amount of money. As I am sure you are aware, due to the conservative government, we are the fifth worst funded local authority in this country so are not a washed with cash. We are having to make quite significant decisions on spending and our budget, as is a number of local authorities. Sadly, I cannot confirm a date for the works at this point in time, but we will continue to be committed to our parks and open spaces for our residents. We would like to think that when the opportunity comes, we could offer some priority to this area but as such I cannot promise this at the minute.