Land Drainage and Flooding
Lead Drainage Authorities, (including County and District
Councils), have discretionary powers, though no duty, to deal with
land drainage issues within their areas under the Land
Drainage Act 1991. The officer dealing with these
issues at MHDC is the Technical Officer, Land Drainage and
Flooding. This officer also works via the Worcestershire Land
Drainage Partnership and Flooding. This officer also works
via the Worcestershire Land Drainage Partnership in association
with other organisations involved with drainage and flooding
matters, ie., The Environment Agency, Worcestershire County Council
Highways, Severn Trent Water PLC and neighbouring Councils, in
order to co-ordinate actions and strategies to achieve the best
resolution to problems arising.
In September 2008 we engaged BWB Consulting of Birmingham to
undertake a strategic review of flooding problems across the whole
of the district. The large scale flooding events of the summer of
2007 and early 2008 had highlighted the need for a more detailed
record of flooding, which would include flood risk from sources
other than from main rivers. All Parish and District Councillors
were consulted as part of the information gathering process and the
prioritisation of high risk sites affected. This included a
"Flood Study Open Day" held in Priory Lodge Hall from 9:00 am to
7:00 pm on 16 January 2009. As a result of this study, two reports
have been produced, these being the BWB Stage 1 Report and
the BWB Stage 2 Report, the
main points of which are contained in the BWB Stage 1 and 2
Summary.
Following the work undertaken by BWB Consulting on behalf of the
Council a specially appointed Project Officer was engaged for a
fixed 18 months period to undertake further investigations within
the 19 "Priority Areas" indentified in the BEB Stage 2
Report. The Project Officer worked initially with the BWB
Consultants and then extensively with all stakeholders, (including
land and property owners, parish and district councillors, County
Council Highways, and the Environment Agency), to implement the
recommendations of the stage 2 report. The details of this
work and the summary of the findings and works implemented can be
found within the Final Report.
Priority Areas for Action Report