Local Flood Risk Management Strategy: February 2022
Local Flood Risk Management Strategy: February 2022
Management
Strategy
February 2022
The Flood Risk Regulations 2009 and Flood and Water Management Act 2010 are
an important part of the Government’s response to the Pitt Report. The Act is
intended to create a more integrated, comprehensive and risk-based regime for
managing the risk of flood and coastal erosion, including identifying clear
responsibilities. In light of this, local authorities are being granted new powers and
existing responsibilities for local flood risk management are being extended.
This Local Flood Risk Management Strategy was originally produced by Rotherham
Metropolitan Borough Council in 2014 and is now to be updated taking into
consideration the recent devasting flods of 2019 and recent changes from climate
change. This is to set out how the local flood risk within the borough will be
managed. The brief for the strategy was approved by Cabinet on 19 March 2012.
The Strategy identifies objectives that have recently been achieved and how they
have been achieved. Including new objectives more suited to the ever changing
climate.
This Strategy is a living document and will be subject to amendments and additions
year on year.
Groundwater – water which is below the surface of the ground and in direct
contact with the ground or subsoil. It is most likely to occur in areas underlain by
permeable rocks, called aquifers. Within Rotherham, deep flows within aquifers
do not generally cause flooding. Whilst flow of groundwater underground at
shallow depths may contribute to localised flooding where it emerges as springs
or issues, the flow closely mirrors surface flows and is not related to a
widespread rise in groundwater levels. Groundwater flooding has therefore not
been addressed separately to surface water flooding in this strategy.
This Strategy does not consider the following sources of flooding, except where
there is an interaction with surface water flooding for example where high water
levels within river impede the discharge from an ordinary watercourse:
Main river – watercourses legally defined and marked as such on the main
rivers map. Generally they are larger streams or rivers, but can be smaller
watercourses. The Environment Agency has flood risk management
responsibility for them.
Large reservoirs – Under the Reservoirs Act 1975, the owner is responsible
for regulating large raised reservoirs with a capacity exceeding 10,000 m³. The
owner must also have a flood plan, flood map and on-site emergency flood
plans.
The north-west and central areas of the Borough drain to the river Don, which runs
from Sheffield, through Rotherham town centre, where it is joined by the River
Rother, then to the north east where it is joined by the River Dearne near the
Boundary with Doncaster, and are within the Rotherham sub-area of the Don
Catchment in the Humber river basin district.
In June 2008, Sir Michael Pitt published his final report, Learning Lessons from the
2007 Floods, which recognised that there were significant gaps in the powers held
by various bodies in trying to reduce and respond to the risk of flooding and called
for urgent and fundamental changes in the way the country is adapting to the
increased risk. The report includes 92 recommendations, of which 21 are specifically
designated to local authorities.
The Water Framework Directive (WFD) 2000 is European legislation with the primary
aim of improving water quality. The Directive requires the creation of river basin
management plans and flood risk management plans.
In accordance with the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 this strategy builds
on existing approaches to flood and coastal risk management and promotes the use
of a wide range of measures to manage risk.
o Set out clear and consistent plans for risk management so that communities and
businesses can make informed decisions about the management of the
remaining risk;
o Manage flood and coastal erosion risks in an appropriate way, taking account of
the needs of communities and the environment;
o Ensure that emergency plans and responses to flood incidents are effective and
that communities are able to respond effectively to flood forecasts, warnings
and advice;
The strategy shows how communities can be more involved in local flood and
coastal erosion risk management. It also emphasises the need to balance national
and local activities and funding. In setting out future approaches to flood risk
management, this strategy considers the level of risk and how it might change in the
future, the risk management measures that may be used, roles and responsibilities,
future funding and the need for supporting information.
Following the 2019 flood event in South Yorkshire, Mayor Dan Jarvis and Local Authority
Leaders submitted a South Yorkshire Business and Infrastructure Resilience Priority Flood
Programme to Government, which included the proposal to prepare a catchment wide flood
plan covering the whole of South Yorkshire.
The Board has commented at various stages in the preparation of the Catchment Plan and
these comments have informed a final draft version (attached at Appendix A), along with the
comments of the South Yorkshire Flood Risk Partnership (which has jointly overseen its
preparation with this Board), and those of wider stakeholders. Members views are invited on
this final draft Plan.
Key Issues
The aim is for the ‘Connected by Water’ Catchment Plan to be a ‘living document’ to
facilitate the development of a long-term strategy for flood risk management and climate
resilience.
The Catchment Plan outlines the actions to be undertaken to reduce flood risk, mitigate
climate change and support climate resilient communities across South Yorkshire. It will
support better joint working; provide a compelling programme to attract potential investors;
and demonstrate that measures are being put in place to protect local communities.
Importantly, it provides a clear programme of welldeveloped projects to help secure the
remaining investment required across South Yorkshire to alleviate and mitigate future
flooding.
The Catchment Plan is arranged around the following four Key Workstreams which have
been developed in partnership by the MCA Executive, Environment Agency, the four South
Yorkshire Authorities and Yorkshire Water:
1. Responding to the climate emergency.
2. Ensuring investment is prioritised, smart and based on evidence using the best available
data and intelligence.
3. Strengthening the use of technology and operational management to build the capacity of
Local Authorities and other Risk Management Authorities to work together more effectively
on an operational basis.
4. Community engagement and resilience.
The Catchment Plan encompasses activities already underway as well as new innovative
actions, with lead and supporting organisations identified for each action and an indicative
timescale for completion.
The South Yorkshire Flood Risk Partnership have endorsed the draft Catchment Plan, and
subject to approval by the MCA in January, it is intended to formally launch the Catchment
Plan on the 28 January 2022.
Work is underway to identify and secure resources and funding to deliver the Catchment Plan
over the coming years. There are a number of immediate actions over the next year that will
require additional funding to progress. There is previously committed but unallocated MCA
Gainshare funding to support flood resilience and mitigation, some of which could be
allocated to support delivery of some of these immediate actions. Other partners are similarly
The Local Plan will eventually replace the existing Unitary Development Plan and will
help to streamline the local planning process and promote a proactive and positive
approach to managing development. It will help the Council decide on planning
applications and promote Rotherham's continued regeneration whilst protecting and
Rotherham Emergency Plan, Multi-Agency Flood Plan and Flood Action Plans
The Council’s Emergency Plans are published on the Council’s intranet. The Plans
consist of a corporate Borough Emergency Plan and various Service Emergency
Plans. The Environment and Development Services Emergency Plan has Flood
Action Plans which identify areas at high risk of flooding such as Catcliffe.
The Plans are living documents and are amended and updated regularly.
The purpose of the Register is to identify possible hazards which could impact on the
communities of South Yorkshire, to assess the likelihood of each of these hazards
occurring, and to thereby inform contingency planning arrangements within South
Yorkshire.
The Water Companies have a duty to assist LLFA in sharing of information and data
and have an understanding of flood risk from the public sewerage systems.
This new fund stems from the announcement we made in 2019 that the 8 eligible
English city regions would receive £4.2 billion of additional funding for local transport
networks. That new money is at the core of this fund and should allow city regions to
commence transformational change.
The most recent flood event on the 7th November 2019 was on scale and not
witnessed since 2007 and had not been seen for many decades before that, the
consequences for residents, businesses and communities were very significant with
over 150 households flooding, including numerous business and in the excess of 45
major road closures making manoeuvring around the Borough extremely difficult.
Fortunately, no one within Rotherham lost their life or were seriously injured directly
as a result of the floods. However the financial and emotional costs of both the
immediate impact and long term consequences have been huge.
www.rotherham.gov.uk/downloads/file/1691/section-19-flood-investigation-report-
november-2019
Recent flooding incidents are generally well reported and documented. Records of
older floods do exist in some cases, but are incomplete and difficult to verify. The
easily accessible records have been extracted and mapped. As further historical
information becomes available, the flooding records will be updated.
A desk study of historical flooding confirms that there have been many significant
floods on the Don and Rother for hundreds of years, including before the catchment
was significantly developed. The development of the catchment and changes to the
watercourses and sewers mean that the older historical information is not useful for
assessment of current flood risk.
The modelling was carried out by applying rainfall to a digital terrain model and this
was done using 3 different methodologies, namely Flood Map for Surface Water
(FMfSW), Areas Susceptible to Surface Water Flooding (AStSWF) and Risk of
Flooding from Surface Water (RFfSW). FMfSW and AStSWF were carried out before
the draft LFRMS was produced and were used to identify areas at risk and in
particular the 106 areas in Rotherham prioritised for further investigation. During the
consultation period, the RFfSW information became available. This is considered
superior to both previous methodologies and supersedes both. The 106 areas have
Drawing 187/46/DR002A in Appendix B shows the 106 areas and the revised
rankings.
Maps showing flood risk, including surface water risk, are available on the
Environment Agency website.
Objective 2
Objective 3
Objective 4
Objective 5
Objective 6
Objective 7
All planning applications are to be consulted on within 21 days to
ensure no additional flood risk is created through new
developments within the Borough.
Objective 8
Encourage, develop and implement long-term, cost-effective and
environmentally sound mitigation assets related to flood defences.
A detailed action plan which addresses the objectives of the Strategy as detailed in
item 7 above is contained in Appendix A.
Flood Defence Central government funding for flood (and £5.2billion Environment Medium to
Grant-in-Aid coastal) defence projects – recently revised to Agency large capital
(FDGiA) encourage a partnership approach to FRM projects
maximise match-funding, work towards
achieving specified outcomes with a
requirement to evidence a reduction in flood
risk to properties
Local Levy Annual contributions from Councils to a £2.5million per Environment Smaller FRM
regional “pot”, smaller than the FDGiA budget year(Yorkshire Agency projects or as
but offers more flexibility on the type and size ) a contribution
of project it can fund. to FDGiA
projects
Asset £240million Environment Replacement
Replacement Agency of existing
Fund The ARA is intended essentially to support asset
Capital Maintenance (CM) type schemes, in defences.
particular those where eventual asset failure
would increase risk to communities and
impose an emergency demand on FDGiA
funding. It is not available for improvement,
withdrawal of maintenance or asset transfer
schemes.
Other £400million
Government EA/RMA’s
Depart Funding OGD remains an element of the FDGiA Funding to aid
(OGD) funding but can be treated as partnership Flood risk
funding. The funding is being allocated to management
support the delivery of FCRM outcome schemes.
measures across the six-year capital
programme (2021/22 to 2026/27), by
contributing financially to schemes which
benefit OGD assets and have a Partnership
Funding gap. It improves stability and
deliverability in the programme
Department for £7.15million RMBC
Education
Funding (DfE) Since 2019 we have successfully secured DfE funding is
£7.15m in partnership funding from in addition to
Department for Education (DfE). This the OGD
investment has contributed to FCRM schemes funding
that, better protect schools, properties and mentioned
communities, and help to create a nation above, and is
Greenhouse gas (GHG) levels in the atmosphere are likely to cause higher winter rainfall in
future. Past GHG emissions mean that some climate change is inevitable in the next 20-30
years. Lower emissions could reduce the amount of climate change further into the future, but
changes are still projected at least as far ahead as the 2080’s.
We have enough confidence in large scale climate models to say that we must plan for
change. There is more uncertainty at a local scale but model results may help us plan to
adapt. For example, we understand that rain storms may become more intense, even if we
can’t be sure about exactly where or when. By the 2080’s, the latest UK climate projections
(UK Climate Projections 2009) are that there could be around three more days in winter with
heavy rainfall (defined as more than 25mm in a day). It is plausible that the amount of rain in
extreme storms (with a 1 in 5 annual chance, or rarer) could increase by 40%.
If emissions follow a medium future scenario, UKCP09 projected changes by the 2050’s
relative to the recent past are:
Winter precipitation increases of around 12% (very likely to be between 2 and 26%)
Precipitation on the wettest day in winter up by around 12% (very likely to be more than
24%)
Relative sea level at Grimsby very likely to be up between 10 and 41cm from 1990 levels
(notincluding extra potential rises from polar ice sheet loss)
Peak river flows in a typical catchment likely to increase between 8 and 14%
Drainage systems in the district have been modified to manage water levels and
could help in adapting locally to some impacts of future climate on flooding, but may
also need to be managed differently. Rising river levels may also increase local flood
risk away from major rivers because of interactions with drains, sewers and smaller
watercourses. Where appropriate, we need local studies to understand climate
impacts in detail, including effects from other factors like land use. Sustainable
development and drainage will help us adapt to climate change and manage the risk
of damaging floods in future.
In England, National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) aims to "ensure that flood
risk is taken into account at all stages in the planning process to avoid inappropriate
development in areas at risk of flooding, and to direct development away from areas
at highest risk. Where new development is, exceptionally, necessary in such areas,
policy aims to make it safe without increasing flood risk elsewhere and where
possible, reducing flood risk overall."
Adherence to Government policy ensures that new development does not increase
local flood risk. However, in exceptional circumstances the Local Planning Authority
may accept that flood risk can be increased contrary to Government policy, usually
because of the wider benefits of a new or proposed major development. Any
exceptions would not be expected to increase risk to levels which are "significant" (in
terms of the Government's criteria).
The Councils Climate Change Adaptation Plan identifies specific measures which
are targeted at managing the consequences of more frequent severe rainfall events.
These measures have been addressed by complementary measures in this
Strategy.
Funding applications for flood defence works are assessed against criteria which
also assess benefits unrelated to flood risk and projects which deliver environmental
improvements score more highly and are therefore more likely to obtain funding.
The increasing knowledge of flood risk will be used to feed into the Rotherham Multi-
Agency Flood Response Plan, particularly in the following areas:
o Business continuity.
o Determine in greater detail the risk of flooding to residential and non residential
buildings.
All aspects of flood risk management is becoming more difficult to recruit into over
the past several years there has been a shortage of engineers with drainage and
A policy to control the storage and use of this data has been produced and is
included in Appendix C. The policy, which is specific to flood risk management
functions is compatible with the Council’s data management policies, licensing
agreements and legislation such as the Data Protection Act and The Freedom of
information Act.
It is recognised that in order to achieve the maximum benefit from the available data,
it should be freely available. The policy considers the most appropriate format for the
data to be made available, taking into account the restrictions above. Modelled
predictions of flood extents and similar data should not be presented in a format
which implies a greater accuracy than can be achieved in practice.
Risk management authorities must comply with a request made by an overview and
scrutiny committee for information and/or a response to a report, and must have
regard to reports and recommendations of an overview and scrutiny committee. In
effect, the Act extends Local Authority scrutiny to cover the full range of flood risk
management activities carried out within the local authority area.
o Have there been previous scrutiny exercises on a task and finish select
committee approach that could provide a local model?
o The rationale for, and scope of the Local Flood Risk Management Strategy
needs to be explained clearly, particularly its local relevance in relation to other
existing priorities.
The strategy has currently fell behind on its reviews due to staffing issues and recent
flood events taking precedent. The full list of documents are due to be reviewed over
the next 12 months and will be issued as an appendix to this document.