Arun floodwaters last year were highest since the 1990s, council hears

A report on the forum meeting was heard by ADC’s environment committee at its meeting on Thursday, June 20, where members noted the report.

The forum is made up of representatives from Arun District Council, West Sussex County Council, Southern Water, the Environment Agency and select parish councils.

It was established to address flood prevention and response in Arun district, following Storm Ciarán in October/November last year.

The Environment Agency gave a presentation on its role in Arun’s flood prevention and response, with three slides included by Southern Water, focused largely on the Aldingbourne catchment – a series of rivers stretching from Bognor Regis out to Bersted, Yapton and parts of Chichester district.

It said the area had seen higher than average rainfall from October last year to April this year, with the most extreme difference in October, seeing an actual rainfall of 274.4 millimetres compared to an average of 62.2 millimetres over the month.

The Aldingbourne Rife catchment area, a smaller area near the centre of Bognor Regis, saw the highest flood waters measured at the Aldingbourne gauging station, near the Bognor Regis Tesco Superstore, since November 1999.

At a gauge in Littlehampton, the EA said it was the second highest measurement since 1990, with the highest since that point being in December 1995.

They said these measurements were more than in 2012, when the UK nationally saw record levels of rainfall, as well as ‘major flooding’ according to the EA.

After the EA said it conducted its 2017 Aldingbourne Rife FRM study, which saw Barnham and Felpham identified as ‘key areas’ for flooding investigations, and determined sources of flooding in Arun as fluvial, tidal, surface water and sewer flooding.

It also saw the idea of dredging silt from the south of the catchment to help water drain to the pumping stations investigated, which found no reduced risk of flooding for residential properties, a ‘major driver’ of the EA’s funding.

The EA highlighted two planned projects in the Aldingbourne catchment, both with funding gaps, with one in Barnham at an indicative cost of £900,000 and one to improve Felpham Pumping Station for around £1 million – both schemes also needing £100,000 for feasibility studies.

The forum resolved that the EA would revise its 2017 Aldingbourne Rife FRM study, saying the area will ‘likely continue to get wetter’ over the coming years due to climate change, so shorter term ‘sticking plaster’ solutions would not be as viable in dealing with the rife.

All groups at the meeting also resolved to find ‘short term’ solutions to prevent flooding ahead of the upcoming winter, to review their own studies and engage with riparian homeowners ahead of the next meeting.

WSCC officers confirmed their review of the Local Flood Risk Management Strategy was underway, something agreed at the last meeting.

They also said a report required to undertake ‘appropriate’ flood investigations, a Section 19 report, which would be led by WSCC, should see an update at the next meeting in August, but would only provide analysis of the issue and not provide recommendations to the forum.

Operational joint agency meetings are also to be held between the agencies at the forum ‘regularly’ in order to ‘service the forum work and outcomes’.

The forum meeting drew some criticism from Arun councillors on the environment committee, who said parish and town councils should be invited to the meetings, and that other bodies involved in flood response, such as Sussex Police, needed to be questioned.

Arun officers suggested that parish and town invites should be rotated between councils every meeting, to make sure all affected councils get to sit on the forum, which was agreed by the committee members.

The previous meeting saw Southern Water questioned on its response to the floods, which drew criticism from Arun District councillors for not leaving adequate time for question and answer of Southern Water.

The next meeting is likely to be held in August, according to the committee’s report, though no exact times have been agreed yet.