Purpose

The Flood and Water Management Act 2010 designates Lancashire County Council as a Lead Local Flood Authority responsible for managing flood risk from 'local' sources; surface water, groundwater and ordinary watercourses. Section 9 of the Flood and Water Management Act requires Lead Local Flood Authorities to:

'develop, maintain, apply and monitor a strategy for local flood risk management in its area.'

The previous Local Flood Risk Management Strategy was produced in partnership with Blackpool Council and approved by the county council in April 2014. Now that the Environment Agency has published the new National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England, Lead Local Flood Authorities must update their Local Strategies to ensure they remain compliant with the requirements under Section 9 of the Flood and Water Management Act.

Lancashire County Council, Blackpool Council and Blackburn-with-Darwen Council have compiled a joint Lancashire Local Flood Risk Management Strategy 2021 - 2027 which has been subject to consultation with flood risk management authorities, wider partners and with members of the public (a full consultation report is presented in Appendix 'B').

Approval is now sought for the final draft of the joint Lancashire Local Flood Risk Management Strategy 2021 – 2027 as set out at Appendix 'A'.

This is deemed to be a Key Decision and the requirements of Standing Order C19 have been complied with.

Decision

The Cabinet approved the recommendation(s) as set out in the report.