Ulceby.Net Flood Forum Page Ulceby North Lincolnshire UK

Flood Forum

Update March - April 2008

Ulceby Parish Councillors attending the North Lincs. Council Flood Forum for an update session on March 20th 2008 at Pittwood House, Scunthorpe.

Further funding had been received by North Lincs Council to help with flood repairs. Much reparation, water jetting and gulley cleaning had since been done, even in cases when it was not NLC's legal responsibility.

Individual residents should by now have contacted NLC to ensure their details are held on the flood forum database, and not simply waited for someone to eventually contact them instead. At a time when individual expectations are sometimes impossibly high, self-help is the order of the day: a flood fair exhibition in Scunthorpe showed some practical ideas to help residents prepare better for some unexpected emergencies.

The Parish Council was impressed by the detailed analysis, logging and computer mapping that had taken place in Scunthorpe. Every last known incident had been recorded and mapped. Overall the Parish Council has commended the commitment shown, with all the NLC officers concerned working hard and diligently to record incidents and follow up afterwards. Considering that there were no proper communications in place before, NLC admitted to the disasters being a "wake up call", and has taken responsibility to co-ordinate agencies. Links between agencies and councils are strengthening considerably.

Ulceby Parish Council is also working with the Internal Drainage Board but our attention concentrates mainly on Anglian Water and the design of Ulceby's sewage system. At present (April 2008) we are told that AW is yet to start work on computer modelling of Ulceby's foul drains system. We also highlighted what we felt was the lack of input from AW re. planning applications -- i.e. whether the sewage system could cope with new housing -- and in general we (along with other local Parish Councils) are pushing to ensure that aspects of drainage and sewage capacity are considered better when planning decisions are taken.

Likewise the Environment Agency does, generally speaking, comment about flood planes and housing locations but the EA has previously stated that their own advice may be overridden by planning authorities. At a previous meeting the Environment Agency emphasised the fact that residents do not have the legal right to environmental flood protection, and any measures put in place are classed as a "bonus".

Clearly a lot of work still needs doing on local drainage and sewage, but many drainage dikes have now been dealt with or are scheduled for maintenance, and we now have (for the first time!) a map showing all such drains that are managed by the IDB based in Ulceby, who have been exceptionally helpful when working with us. The work continues on determining who is responsible for what, a thorny problem that has dogged the Parish Council for a long time.

A lot of remedial work has been carried out, troublespots have been highlighted and maintenance work is ongoing. The Parish Council will endeavour to update residents with progress via this web page and at monthly Parish Council meetings.