Flood Defences

Baroness Humphreys Excerpts

Wednesday 26th November 2014 Grand Committee

[Baroness Humphreys (LD)]

My Lords, although the noble Baroness’s Question asks about the Government’s plans for adequate flood defences in the UK, I hope that she will allow me to turn my attention to the situation in my part of Wales, for which the Welsh Government have responsibility—although, of course, they are restricted by the Barnett settlement in the amount of funding that they receive from the UK Government. I am sure that the Minister takes an active interest in flood defences throughout the UK, including Wales.

I shall give some explanation of my interest in this debate. My interest, like that of many noble Lords, comes from where I live. I live in north Wales in the Conwy Valley, through which the Conwy river flows. The river has its source in Lake Conwy, in the area surrounded by the Migneint and Berwyn mountains, and flows into the sea at Conwy. The river and its name, as noble Lords can no doubt imagine, sometimes dominate our lives.

The small town in which I live, Llanrwst, sits at one of the narrowest points of the river and has an almost iconic status within Wales as the town that is always affected by floods. Year after year, newspaper and television reports have shown the damage to properties and the devastation to the lives of some of our inhabitants. Comparatively recent floods in 2004 and 2005, where there were three flood events within two years, left over 60 properties flooded, some of which flooded twice in a matter of days, leaving householders unable to sell their properties or arrange future insurance cover.

I am among the first to criticise the Welsh Government for their failures but I am also among the first to praise them when the occasion allows, and this is such an occasion. The work begun by the then Environment Minister for Wales, Jane Davidson, and Environment Agency Wales, is now beginning to come to fruition and, hopefully, the residents of our town can have more confidence in being able to withstand the powers of future floods. I offer these descriptions as examples of actions that Governments can take.

Over the intervening years since 2005, the Welsh Government have put schemes in place to alleviate the floods. Although they are designated as flood alleviation schemes, they can also be described as providing flood defences for the town. A £3.2 million major engineering scheme—85% funded by the Welsh Government, with the remaining 15% funded by Conwy County Borough Council—saw tunnelling work carried out under our streets and the construction of a massive culvert. Flood gates now automatically open when the floodwater rises. The water is stored under our streets until the river level begins to drop and the gates again open to allow the water to flow back into the river. One of the characteristics of the River Conwy is that it is tidal from its mouth at the Irish Sea to about two or three miles north at Llanrwst. When a high tide is coming up river and meets the torrential floodwaters making their way down from the mountains, our town becomes the pinchpoint.

The Conwy Valley is primarily rural and one of our major industries is agriculture. Over the years, flood banks have been constructed alongside the river, leaving the rich soil of the flood plains to be grazed, or cultivated by farmers. This added to our problems, narrowing the river channel and increasing the pressure of both flood and tidal waters and increasing the speed with which they met.

In a further £7 million scheme, funded by European objective 1 funding, a Welsh Government block grant and Environment Agency Wales’s flood defence budget, other steps have been taken to deal with the problem. In very sensitive talks with local agricultural representatives and farmers, agreement, with compensation, was reached to reduce the height of the flood banks, allowing 450 acres of low-lying land to be flooded and allowing the flood plains to do the work that they should have been doing over the years. Further flood banks were then constructed at the next village down river, Trefriw, in order to protect homes there. Perhaps I should add here a comment and warning that flood defences in one particular location can have a knock-on effect on other locations further down river.

All these measures have proved successful and following the latest flood event in the valley in January 2013, when 95 millimetres of rain fell in two days and the volume of water was equal to that of 2005, a spokesperson for Environment Agency Wales said:

“Homes in Llanrwst and Trefriw were protected as a result of the flood scheme completed in 2010 … We have seen unprecedented levels of rainfall in 2012 and it is testament to this initiative and the hard work of our officers that the defences held up to safeguard properties in Llanrwst and Trefriw“.

In another part of the £7 million scheme, Dutchdam and Bauer demountable defences were selected and purchased to protect the most vulnerable properties, if all the other measures fail. These barriers can be erected quickly, which is essential for use in an area where the river rises quickly and where there can be a relatively short warning period. Mercifully, there has been no need for these barriers yet, but, as others who live close to rivers will testify, one can never be certain.

Work has recently been completed to protect a further 42 properties close to one of the small tributaries which flows through the town and is liable to flood estates as the water backs up and tries to join the fast-flowing and more powerful River Conwy. This scheme, again funded by the Welsh Government and following a plan developed by Conwy County Borough Council, aims to increase the capacity of the existing watercourse by raising flood walls, realigning and increasing the size of culvert inlets and replacing trash screens.

Those of us who live in close proximity to water have a healthy regard for its power, force and unpredictability and would never be foolish enough to say that such schemes are guaranteed to make flooding a thing of the past. We all understand that each river and each incident of flooding has its own characteristics and a solution achieved in one location will not necessarily apply to another location, but our experience in the Conwy Valley shows that innovative thinking and creative engineering can make a difference.

Water Bill

Baroness Humphreys Excerpts

Tuesday 11th February 2014 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Baroness Humphreys]

165B: After Clause 75, insert the following new Clause—
“Duty to provide sewers
In section 101A of the Water Industry Act 1991, in subsection (2)(a) for “on which there are buildings” substitute “with permanent use and generating domestic effluent”.”

[Baroness Humphreys (LD)]

My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to move this amendment and, in so doing, refer noble Lords to the interest I have already declared as a trustee of the Crafnant Trust. The trust has responsibility for Lake Crafnant, a small reservoir in north Wales.

The amendment seeks to clarify the definition of duty properties as they appear in Section 101A of the Water Industry Act 1991 where an application is being made to connect premises to sewerage for the first time, and seeks to define “duty properties” as premises,

“with permanent use and generating domestic effluent”.

The Water Industry Act 1991 brought in a duty on water companies to provide a sewerage connection where the current arrangements were causing environmental problems, if that was the cheapest overall solution to the problem. Section 101A(1) of the Act states that,

“it shall be the duty of a sewerage undertaker to provide a public sewer to be used for the drainage for domestic sewerage purposes of premises in a particular locality in its area”.

Section 101A(2)(a) further defines the use of the word “premises” as,

“the premises in question, or any of those premises, are premises on which there are buildings”.

It is the use of the word “buildings” that has become problematic for some local authorities and a strict interpretation of the word has given rise to some environmental problems—problems that have caused conflict with the duties of local authorities under the Government’s own guidance, Planning Policy for Traveller Sites, issued in 2012. Under this guidance, local planning authorities are advised that they must have,

“due regard to the protection of local amenity and local environment”,

and that sites should be,

“sustainable economically, socially and environmentally”.

Chesterton Fen in south Cambridgeshire is a case in point, where conflict has been seen between the 1991 Act and the Government’s planning policy. The Traveller site there has full planning permission and the caravan count in January of this year showed that there were 261 caravans on the Chesterton Fen Road site but, because very few of the premises there are “buildings”, none of these is connected to a main sewer and the owners have each had to make their own arrangements for sewage disposal such as small package treatment plants, cesspits and septic tanks leading to soakaways. The development there is close to the River Cam and, because the development is dense and low, there can be environmental problems. I am told that lagoons close to the banks of the river can become less than sweet smelling at all times of the year.

Local councillors petitioned Anglian Water in September 2007 to investigate whether it had a duty to provide a mains sewerage connection but Anglian Water turned the request down in 2009 and an appeal was lost in June 2011. The judgment hinged on the number of properties in the area for which the water company had a duty to provide this service under the Act. In short, most of the Travellers’ caravans or day rooms did not count, so although there are more than 250 caravan plots in the area, only 30 duty properties—houses and a few substantial mobile homes—were considered, and the economic argument was then that it was cheaper for these 30 to provide cesspits for themselves than to lay on a sewer. If all the caravans had counted as buildings, there is no question but that the water authority would have had to provide a sewer. After all, it is impossible to imagine permission being given for an estate of 250 houses without access to sewerage being part of that permission. Therefore, the whole issue revolves around the use of the word “buildings” and the lack of guidance around its definition. Many applications and appeals have had to resort to the definition provided under building regulations guidance, which is why successive applications and appeals have failed.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Northover]

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for raising an issue which is clearly of no small importance to any community affected. Section 101A relates to a “Further duty to provide sewers” to relieve environmental and amenity issues caused by inadequate sewerage. This section applies to “premises” and “buildings” and the amendment seeks to change that to make the duty apply to structures which may not currently be considered buildings for the purposes of this duty.

In the case of Traveller sites, such as the one she referred to at Chesterton Fen near Cambridge, when considering an appeal in respect of a decision not to provide a sewer under Section 101A, the Environment Agency will look at the case for each individual caravan on the basis of its size, permanence and degree of physical attachment to the land. To vary the definition in this section would potentially have far-ranging and unintended consequences. We feel that the best route is to meet my noble friends to discuss their concerns further. On that basis, I hope that she will be prepared to withdraw her amendment.

[Baroness Humphreys]

I thank my noble friend for her reply. Given the degree of reassurance she has given me, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment 165B withdrawn.

Water Bill

Baroness Humphreys Excerpts

Monday 27th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Humphreys (LD)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a trustee of the Crafnant Trust, which has responsibility for Lake Crafnant—a small reservoir above the Conwy valley in north Wales which I do not own.

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate and to note that, although the Bill applies to both England and Wales, it gives Welsh Ministers powers in relation to the whole area served by water and sewerage undertakers,

“wholly or mainly in Wales”.

I would not presume or dare to speak on behalf of the Welsh Government, but I believe that they would not wish to follow the direction outlined by the Westminster Government, whom they consider to be,

“overly dependent on competition within the water supply system”.

That is their right under powers devolved to them, but I also welcome the fact that, if enacted as currently drafted, the Bill will enable Ministers in future Welsh Governments to introduce competition if they so wish.

I was pleased to hear the noble Lord speak about the work of Dwr Cymru, and perhaps here I should also declare an interest as a customer. There is a belief that in Glas Cymru we have a framework and a supply system that work for the people of Wales. Glas Cymru is a not-for-profit organisation with no shareholders. It has brought investment into the system and reduced bills, and it is perhaps a model that should be emulated.

I welcome the attempts in the Bill to help those in areas at high risk of flooding to secure affordable insurance. However, as I understand it and as other noble Lords have highlighted, there are some concerns about the provisions that apply only to those in domestic properties. I am sure we can all think of examples of flooding in our areas where homes may have been affected but so, too, have the business premises next door. Perhaps my noble friend could place on the record, for interested parties, the reasons why small businesses will not be treated in the same way. As I said, I welcome these changes as far as they go, but changing the insurance regime in isolation is surely dealing with only one side of the coin. I hope that your Lordships will allow me to deal with the other side of the coin as I seek to bring the debate back to the matter of insurance.

As we begin to realise the enormity of the task that we have to deal with in order to combat the effects of climate change, many of us believe that there has to be a commitment to further flood defence work to prevent a repetition of the misery that we have seen in recent weeks. The Conwy valley, where I live, is certainly no stranger to the misery caused by flooding. I respectfully suggest that the magnitude of the flooding that we experience would certainly not be solved by community or group activity. One characteristic of the Conwy river is that it rises very quickly and can subside equally quickly, particularly after a high tide, but the flood waters have in the past left up to 100 flooded homes in their wake.

Many Members have spoken about sustainability, and they may be interested to hear of some work that has been carried out in the area of the source of the river Conwy. Some £300,000 has been allocated to restoration work on the threatened Migneint upland peatbog on the Conwy-Gwynedd border. The scheme has been funded by the National Trust and Natural Resources Wales and supported by many volunteers. This project, which is aimed primarily at saving a threatened Welsh ecosystem which can store more greenhouse gases than the Amazon rainforest, is recording impressive results according to scientists. Miles of ditches dug on a large area of peatland over the past two centuries have been filled with the aim of storing carbon and, at the same time, reducing flooding in the valley below. Already, some evidence is pointing to a slowing down of the rate at which the river rises, as the run-off from the slopes of the Migneint and Berwyn mountains is retained for longer in the peatlands.

Because of the severity of the floods that we suffered in the Conwy valley in 2004 and 2005, we saw massive schemes put in place by the Welsh Government, Environment Agency Wales and Conwy County Borough Council. Here, I pay tribute to the effective partnership working that we have seen between these organisations, and I add my recognition of the contribution made by European rural development funding to the schemes.

In an effort to protect our homes and businesses, a massive culvert was constructed under the streets of our town. As they rise, flood waters are now diverted into the culvert, stored there and gradually released as the waters subside. Demountable barriers, purchased from Holland—where the people know something about controlling water—are now available and can be installed to block off streets if flood waters threaten properties. Thankfully, these have not been required so far.

Embankments, or levees, which had been constructed along the river bank over the years to claim the fertile flood plain soil for agriculture, have been levelled and the flood plains are once again allowed to do the job nature intended. Farmers have been consulted and compensated and their co-operation in moving livestock at times of high risk has been achieved. New bunds, or small embankments, have been built and artificial lakes created to store flood water in order to protect the next village.

Those of us who live in close proximity to water have a healthy regard for its power, force and unpredictability and would never be foolish enough to say that such schemes are guaranteed to make flooding a thing of the past. However, the Environment Agency's data show that the volume of water which would have caused flooding to properties in the past did not do so in our last flood event. An unseen and unheralded saving to householders and insurance companies has therefore emanated from the flood alleviation scheme.

We all understand that each river and each incidence of flooding has its own characteristic and a solution achieved in one location will not necessarily apply to another. However, our experience in the Conwy valley shows that innovative thinking and creative engineering can make a difference.

This is neither the time nor the place to make a plea for the encouragement of more schemes to restore peatlands or of more engineering projects to protect vulnerable areas, but I hope that my noble friend can confirm that these matters are at least under discussion, that consideration is and will be given to methods of their funding and that the potential consequential savings to householders, local authorities and insurance companies will also be taken into account.