General Information/Flooding

Flooding Update:  Since the July 2007 floods an awful lot of work has been undertaken by Wychavon Council.  Apart from the initial response to help residents with excess rubbish collection; environmental and public health issues; money for flooded properties to help with the cleanup; council tax concessions, the following are some of the things that have been undertaken since:-

1. Set up a Flood Working Group (Members and officers) specifically for the purpose of assessing the whole issue of the July flooding in Wychavon.  This has included meetings with all the agencies involved, Severn Trent Water (surface and foul water drainage, Environment Agency (main rivers), and County Highways (highway drainage).  We have attended meetings with Sir Michael Pitt MP and John Healey MP plus local MP's.
2. Distribution of flood fund support to affected residents.
3. Distribution of flood funds to Parish Councils for public realm issues, e.g. aqua-sacs etc.
4. Relevant officers and members have had public meetings with Parish Councils around the District (including attendance by the above Agencies) to obtain local knowledge and hear concerns/try to find solutions. 
5. Large scale plans were sent to all parishes to map the problems and obtain local information about the areas of concern.  This information has been analysed and transferred onto Flood Data Sheets to see where the problems occurred and to identify the correct authority/agency/landowner involved.  From this, 93 Flood Action Plans have gone to the Parish Councils for their comments/approval.
6. Comparisons with the 1998 flood data to establish whether previous remedial works were effective.
7. Discussions with the Association for British Insurers and the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters plus meetings.
8. Walking and inspecting many kilometres of ditches and hundreds of letters to landowners asking them to clear certain ditches, together with ongoing enforcement procedures.
9. Consideration and response to the Pitt Report and discussions by me with the Pitt Review Team.  We have also responded to the Government response to the Pitt report.
10. Design a Planning Policy Supplementary Document (SPD) for public consultation for PPS25, which relates to development and sustainable drainage systems, flood plain, etc. - nearing completion following the recent draft Floods & Water Bill. 
11. Flood Fayre on 14th Feb. 2008 at Evesham Leisure Centre, to give residents an opportunity to see and purchase home flood defence equipment, with financial subsidy.
12. Working with other councils to take a lead on flooding issues generally.
13. Flood Action Plans have now been agreed, and up to £5k will be made available to Parish Councils where 5 or more households get together to come up with suitable proposals for an alleviation scheme.  This money will not be for consultants, but for capital spade in the ground stuff.

We now have a 'Worcestershire Strategic Flood Group' covering the whole of the County (6 Districts), and other key partners such as Environment Agency, etc.   Through this group we are able to bid for specific pots of money to help resilience. This is the way the Government and Defra wish to handle the situation and we have got off to a good start with Defra money for schemes at Beckford and Charlton in the bag.  I am your representative on that Group.

General Communication:  As many of you who know me will understand, although  computer literate, I am more of a 'face-to-face' person than a 'Facebook' person.  I have no problem with strongly held views, but I do believe that communication is enhanced by direct person to person discussion, where you speak and I listen (or vice versa) and, where possible, I can see your body language - something that cannot be picked up on an Internet communication.  Whilst my personal Webpage is in essence a 'blog', experience shows that Internet 'blog' comments are frequently instant, off the cuff interaction, often politically charged, which is not always a good use of a politician's time on behalf of their constituents.  This was revealed in a recent BBC television programme on the subject.  I have to remain independent and therefore I am unable to take a role in any individual's website. So for the moment, I plan to stick with my personal Wychavon Webpage, with my contact details to allow you to email or speak to me in person, and where your concerns or queries can be treated in confidence.  I am also very happy to meet with you face-to-face.  If there is anything that you wish me to highlight during my updates to this website, please let me know and I will endeavour to help/inform where I can.