Rutland County Council struggles to recruit flood officer in wake of storm damage

A council is struggling to recruit a flood officer, due to other authorities offering better pay.

Appointing a flood officer was one of the 14 key recommendations from Rutland County Council's flooding evidence panel set up in January this year in the aftermath of that month’s Storm Henk, with the intention of discovering what action agencies had taken and how a future flood response could be improved. There has been further flooding in the county this weekend as Storm Bert hit.

However cabinet member for environment, Coun Christine Wise (Lib Dem), told the full council when they met on Thursday the authority was finding it hard to find a flooding officer to appoint.

She said: “It is underway, the flood officer appointment, but we have struck difficulties. Unfortunately we weren’t the only area of Great Britain that had flooding, and all of those require section 19 reports. So every consultancy in the country has been out appointing all the best flood officers at considerably more income than as a local authority we can offer. We have gone out to advertise again.”

The report of the flooding evidence panel was discussed at the meeting, with all councillors pleased about how it had been carried out and the recommendations that have come from it.

Besides appointing a flooding officer, other recommendations include reviewing all policies that relate to flood management and emergency planning, that all parishes have their own emergency plan and that identified high risk areas have an enhanced inspection regime.

Leader of the Conservative group Coun Lucy Stephenson, who led the evidence panel, said the anecdotal evidence from members of the public who experienced Storm Henk had been ‘at first glance' potentially alarming.

She said: “We as a council worked together to make sure that we could find the evidence and I believe that in here [the report] there is an objective reflection on anecdotal evidence while also presenting hard facts about how things were handled, our duty in terms of handling those, and of course, ultimately, could we? Could there be improvements? Could actions be taken to help manage flooding in the future?”

She said all of the 14 recommendations made by the scrutiny evidence panel were achievable, adding: “There is no point putting in recommendations that there is neither funding for, not the capacity to deliver.”

Chairperson of the scrutiny committee, Coun Ramsay Ross (Lab), said that as many other parts of the country, such as Lincolnshire, remained at greater risk of flooding damage, the government would probably prioritise that area for funding, and so it was important that the ‘low cost’ recommendations made by the evidence panel were adopted.

Council leader Gale Waller (Lib Democrat) said the cabinet would come up with a way of reporting back to the full council when the full recommendations had been achieved.