Agenda item

To receive a verbal update from the Chief Fire Officer.

The Head of Prevention, Response and Resilience gave Members an update on the flooding that had taken place over the Christmas period in North Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes causing an increase in activity for the Thames Valley Fire Control. The Service dealt with multiple flooding incidents, particularly in the villages north of Milton Keynes. Many of the areas of focus were main roads, where there was a significant number of cars stranded in rising water with occupants unable to safely exit their cars unassisted. At one stage, Thames Valley Fire Control received a call every minute and dealt with approximately 320 incidents during the period. The Service attended over 160 incidents, most of which were flood related and there were a number of rescues carried out from multiple properties.

The Thames Valley Local Resilience Forum arranged partner teleconferences and provided regular updates to partners on forecasts throughout the entire period, with information from the Environmental Agency and the Met Office, including other predictions from a range of sources. The Local Resilience Forum would be carrying out a learning debrief towards the end of February, where local partner agencies would be invited to attend and any learnings from this event would be identify and addressed.

A Member asked for reassurance that when there had been incidents in the past, there had been issues with data sharing between different agencies, and if these now been resolved; and whether the Authority should be asking for example the Environmental Agency to dredge/de-silt the rivers or explain why they don’t do it anymore and increase the risk of flooding.

The Head of Prevention, Response and Resilience responded by reiterating that the Authority had a good working relationship with all partner agencies through the Local Resilience Forum, and as mentioned, there would be a debriefing at the end of February and if there were any particular issues arising out of the flooding, these would be identified. Also, within the Service there was an Operational Assurance Team who regularly hold debriefs on a number of incidents and that informs any changes within the Service. Any learnings would also be shared nationally through the National Operational Learning Forum.

A Milton Keynes Member advised that the Water Flood Management Group at Milton Keynes Council had met on the 13 January 2021, along with the Environment Agency, and a Section 19 flood investigation report would be produced under the Milton Keynes flood investigation policy; and provided details of MKC’s Head of Environment and Flood Water Management Officer with whom Authority officers could liaise in respect of the debrief. The report would be produced following investigation of the impacts of the floods in December and what caused them.

The Chief Fire Officer advised Members that in terms of identifying the risks, prevention was always better than emergency response and the Service would help in anyway it could with regard to the debrief, and in terms of any issues that need to be raised.

A Member asked if the Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service website was updated regularly with current information in terms of guidance to residents on flooding and was advised that the website was up to date with current information and the public were regularly informed about ongoing incidents, via the website, Twitter and Facebook.

A Member asked about the statutory duty of a fire and rescue service with regard to flooding and was advised they don’t have a statutory duty to attend flooding, but this Service was very proactive in its response to flooding. As Members may be aware, there were two boats within the Service, at Newport Pagnell and Beaconsfield and both were registered on the national flood asset register which was held by DEFRA. There was a wide area flooding capability on most fire stations, whereby crews could respond to relatively low levels of moving water to be able to effect rescues to support communities more widely.

A Member asked if the outcomes from the Local Resilience Forum debrief could be brought back to a future meeting and was advised that it could.