Download Paul Hayden presentation

Resilient Costal Communities
Suffolk Coast Forum Annual Conference
2016 7th October, Snape Maltings
Paul Hayden
Chair Anglia (Eastern) Regional Flood & Coastal Committee
Protecting Communities
1. Outline the realities of coastal risk for
communities (from an RFCC Chair /
Emergency Manger’s perspective)
2. Discuss the structures, plans and resources
currently in place to mitigate that risk
3. Take a look forward to see what we can do
locally to make Suffolk communities safer
Community Impacts / Realities
Storm surge provided basis for Environment
Agency warnings & evacuation
Not Just Flooding!
Critical Infrastructure - Water
Mythe WTW
Mythe WTW
Alternative supplies - bowsers
Alternative supplies - bottles
• 15 local distribution
centres
•
150,000 litres given out
23 July
•
3 million litres a day
available by end 24
July
•
Bottled water stocks
maintained to meet
demand
Critical Infrastructure – Power
Walham
Floods - the “Four Realities”
1. Floods by their very nature are multi-agency events.
2. Floods by their very nature are multi-jurisdictional
events.
3. Floods by their very nature are Haz-Mat and public
health events.
4. Floods by their very nature are long term events that
can exhaust responding agency staff and
communities emotionally, mentally, and physically.
Structures, plans and
resources currently in place to
mitigate risk
The “Post Pitt” Reveloution
Strategic Structures
• Defra – Lead Government Department
• EA – Executive Agency with responsibility for
FCERM at a strategic level
• LLFA – Focus for surface water, local plans
and activities
• RFCC – Devolved decision making bodies for
EA’s FCERM plans and spending, monitor &
encourage joined up working locally
Evidence Based Investment
& Response
Flood Forecasting Centre
Improved Flood warnings and EA Flood
Response (emergency rescue still not
funded!)
Continued investment in environmental
science to better understand risk
NERC: Who we are
Leading public funder of environmental
science in the UK investing £330m pa.
3,000 scientists and 1,000 PhD
students
55 universities and 20 research
institutes
UK national capability: 4 ships, 7
aircraft, 6 polar stations, 6 data
centres, 32 community facilities
Meeting society’s needs
Benefiting from natural resources
Resilience to environmental
hazards
Managing environmental change
Discovery science
Success / Issues to date
Improved alignment of
investment across
agencies
Local input / priorities
influence decisions
Genuine desire for
partnerships and to
listen to local people
Internal processes and
treasury rules sometimes
make it difficult to do the
right thing!
Staff reductions and loss
of experience / capacity
make delivery harder
Engagement is slow, you
can never do enough
Opportunities Going Forward
Local Opportunities
• 1st RFCC rolling 10 year Strategic Plan by April 2017
RFCC Stakeholder meeting via Suffolk Costal Forum
• Tremendous support within RFCC for local groups
and initiatives – we just need help finding ways of
getting small amounts of money to where it will be of
most use and deliver best value
• We know the funding process is “clunky” right now,
but stick with us!
Conclusions
• FCERM recognised as a significant strategic issue
with multiple, complex challenges – but there is
significant investment available for FCERM and
the underpinning Science.
• The FCERM landscape and funding is
complicated – we need to get on and deal with it.
• Decision making on local choices is devolved to
RFCC, we want to involve more people in that
process and hope you will contribute