Pre-empted but not defeated

The ‘Plan A’ response to the news that the EA were unlikely to find funding for the Morpeth Flood Alleviation Scheme (see previous post) assumed that the EA Board would not be making their final decision until their March meeting, and that there was time to lobby them. Unfortunately, in the words of our local EA contact:

“The Environment Agency's Board meet each month and we were advised that they would be discussing the indicative allocations at their February meeting but, due to the number a schemes without funding and the representations that had been made, that the final allocation would probably not be agreed until the March meeting. As it happened the Board agreed the allocation at the February meeting. Therefore the final sanctioned list has now been published. The final approved allocation for 2011/12 does not include funding for Morpeth.”
In other words, the lobbying campaign has been pre-empted, and as the EA contact explains:

“At the moment we have not received any scheme allocations beyond the 2011/12 financial year because of Defra's consultation on funding reforms to start in April 2012.

“So at the moment we are facing at least a 1 year delay to the project due to the lack of funding in 2011/12. However, we are currently exploring options to try and secure some level of funding in the 2011/12 financial year to at least continue with some of the planning and design work so that we are ready to start on site if grant funding did become available.”

That is – they are looking for £500k to bring the scheme through technical approval and planning approval, so if and when funding becomes available, they can start work straightaway.

Meanwhile, the Town Council has responded to the Defra funding reform consultation - which is mainly about Government only part-funding schemes and the local community coming up with the rest. And the campaign is continuing to lobby – both looking for a political change of mind (and we know the Government has ‘contingency funds’) and to keep awareness of the Morpeth Scheme live.

Chasing the money

So – funding for the Morpeth flood prevention scheme which politicians of all colours (not just Nick Clegg) assured us was safe – has been deferred. But Morpeth is going to fight the decision (apparently)

As I understand – EA flood protection funding has been cut by 27% for 2011-12, and with existing contractual commitments – they are left with only £19M uncommitted funding for the whole country, and first call on that is for statutory functions such as maintaining reservoirs.

Meanwhile – though the whole Morpeth Scheme costs £17M – allocation of £4M for 2011-12 will see the technical preparations, planning permission etc completed and work started on the ground. And starting the work next year is critical because the Government is consulting on new funding arrangements to start in 2012-13 which would require a significant community contribution to the cost. If we don’t get the scheme started next year, then whatever happens it won’t be funded fully by Government.

So Plan A is to lobby the EA Board (chaired by Lord [Chris] Smith) ahead of their meeting in March to fully fund the Northumbria Regional Flood Defence (NRFC) programme – the top priority of which will be the Morpeth Scheme

If this fails, then we are told that £500k will cover the costs of completing the details of the scheme, gaining planning permission etc so that work on scheme can start as soon as funding becomes available. So Plan B is to raise that £500k either from the NRFC local levy (they have discretion over a c£2M pot ) or from other sources. And the NRFC meet to confirm their programme, informed by the EA Board’s funding decisions in April.

And finally – though it is possible for the work on the scheme to be phased, it is not a good idea to break up the overall scheme since the business case for separate elements of the scheme is weaker than that for the full integrated scheme.

So – let’s tet out there and start lobbying…

Goalposts moved above the floodline

Update from NCC councillor to Town Council

"It was confirmed at the Northumbria Regional Flood Defence Committee that the Morpeth scheme has not scored sufficient points on the Outcome Measures to be included in 11/12 allocation DEFRA's budgetary landscape has changed to the extent that the OM required score of 5 (which Morpeth scheme comfortably achieved) to 14.
This could hardly be more disappointing, especially coming on the back of over 2 years-worth of reassurances.

"The whole committee and officers were devastated and there is a clear determination to progress a suitable scheme for Morpeth.

" The responsibilities and funding landscape around flooding is also in the throes of change. The new Floods & Water Management Act allocates responsiblity to local authorities (NCC) to lead on flood-related matters ('Lead Local Flood Authorities') but with EA retaining responsibility for coast and main watercourses. It also proposes changing the way funding is allocated with fewer schemes receiving full-cost funding and most will be dependent on local discretion - the replacement for the NRFDC (Regional Flood & Coastal Committee) will have more responsibilities and enhanced decision-making (which at the moment is largely restricted, in practice, to allocation of the local levy-funded - relatively small - schemes).

" How this will play out in practice is unknown, but we should share the EA's determination to see this interregnum and the new system as an opportunity."

Not good news then - and it also leaves the Dransfield foodstore application with two dilemmas i) is it really safe without the promise of comprehensive flood defences and ii) their 'community obligation' was to build the flood defences (bund) along the river edge of their site - will that still hold?

Flood Protection Scheme

Lots of rumours going around about the timetable for the Environment Agency's Flood Alleviation (Protection & Prevention) Scheme for Morpeth. The version I've heard is:

• consultation on options for scheme: March - June '09
• early summer - decision on preferred option and design work carried out
• construction work to start in early 2011, depending on the scheme design - and it will take about two years to complete
• Cost will be £10-15M out of a total £600M national pot - and the money has been earmarked for Morpeth

Incidentally - the EA flood defence work was delayed nationally because the Government cut the funding. They cut the funding because DEFRA (under which the EA comes) was fined by the EU. DEFRA was fined because of delays in making Single Farm Payments to hard-up farmers. The delays were caused by Government trying to introduce the new single payment scheme in one year instead of five years (as happened in most European countries).

Flood Prevention & Protection in Morpeth

Next month (February), the Environment Agency (EA) will start consultation on flood prevention and protection schemes for Morpeth with a view to carrying out works in 2010. The last two proposed schemes were purely about flood protection – the proposal to build a 3m earth mound on High Stanners was rejected by local residents who preferred to accept the risk of flooding, while the concrete walls protecting Low Stanners look ugly and reportedly cause more problems than they solve by merely redirecting water.

This time, however, it sounds as though, the EA will be proposing more integrated plans – so I thought I’d just run over the causes of flooding as I understand them:
i) a sudden release of water – we’re going to get more ‘cloudburst’ style storms as climate change kicks in, but fewer heavy falls of snow with sudden thaws. Not much we can do about that either way – though if we reduce CO2 emissions drastically now, it won’t carry on getting worse for our great-grandchildren
ii) rapid run-off of water: if the ground is impervious – could be waterlogged or could be bone dry or could be covered by tarmac or concrete, then the water will run off rapidly rather than being soaked up and draining slowly. Several things we could do here:
a) don’t build huge areas of concrete or tarmac (like the new Dark Lane car park) without adequate soakaway (not just run-off drainage)
b) create ponds, watermeadows, marshland to absorb the water and slow the drain off. The Northumbrian Water works on Wellway include installation of huge tanks to hold back water when the Cotting Burn can’t cope with the water flowing into it.
c) plant water-loving trees like willows and alders along the river to soak up water (and absorb CO2) – though manage them to avoid branches etc causing blockages (see below)
iii) blockages in the drainage system, streams and rivers. Regular maintenance of storm drains and culverts is a must – any council that tries to save money by skimping on this sort of maintenance is penny-wise, pound-foolish. Litter – especially plastic bags – can be a major cause of blockages. Last year’s floods in Gloucester and Sheffield were made worse by plastic bags clogging the drains.
Debris from trees etc regularly cause blockages in streams and rivers – with the narrow Oldgate Bridge arches are a significant contributor to the High Stanners flood risk. Previous EA responses have involved drastic cutting back of trees along the river bank, but this can lead to erosion. Richard Cansdale is proposing a grid of ramps upstream which will strand tree debris as water levels rise, at a location where they could be regularly cleared.

So let’s see what the Environment Agency propose…