The Place Scrutiny Committee was scheduled to meet to confirm the minutes of a previous meeting and to receive a presentation on the council's preparedness for flooding and severe weather. The meeting was open to the public, who were allowed to submit questions in advance.

Council's Preparedness for Flooding and Severe Weather

The Place Scrutiny Committee was scheduled to receive a presentation on Derbyshire County Council's preparedness for flooding and severe weather. The presentation was requested by the committee.

The report pack included a report from the Executive Director - Place, Rob Brittan, that provided background information for the presentation. The report noted that the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 places duties on the council as a Category 1 Responder¹, including:

• Assess the risks of emergencies occurring and use this to inform contingency planning.
• Put in place emergency plans.
• Put in place business continuity management arrangements.
• Share information with other local responders to enhance coordination.
• Co-operate with other local responders to enhance co-ordination and efficiency.
• Put in place arrangements to make information available to the public about civil protection matters and maintain arrangements to warn inform and advise the public in the event of an emergency.
• Provide advice and assistance to business and voluntary organisations about business continuity management.

The report also referred to the National Risk Register (NRR), the external public version of the National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA), which is the government's assessment of the most serious risks facing the UK.

The council is a key stakeholder in the Derbyshire Resilience Partnership, which acts as the Local Resilience Forum² and provides strategic oversight and co-ordination of resilience in Derbyshire. The Derbyshire Resilience Partnership takes information from national risks and undertakes localised assessments. Risk information for Derbyshire, in relation to severe weather and flooding, is taken from the 2022 version of the Community Risk Register.

The risks for Derbyshire were assessed as:

The report stated that the Met Office provides information in the lead up to any weather events, providing advance warnings to the public and professional partners, and that the Environment Agency will work with the Met Office to produce assessments of how rainfall will impact on rivers and watercourses, or where a rapid thawing of snow and ice may impact river levels.

The Flood Water Management Act 2010 requires the council, as the lead local flood authority, to create and apply a local flood risk management strategy.

The council has recruited a cohort of Derbyshire Emergency Volunteers, who provide support to those affected by an emergency and play a key role in the staffing of assistance centres, and has supported the Environment Agency in recruiting community flood wardens to assist during flooding incidents. The council has also recruited a number of community snow wardens to help support communities at a local level.

The Emergency Planning Team provides a single gateway for the emergency services, local authorities and other partners of the Derbyshire Resilience Partnership, for both in hours and out of hours response to emergencies.

The report stated that in the previous six years, the council has responded to several significant incidents related to flooding, reservoir breach and severe weather, including the major failure of a dam wall at the Todbrook Reservoir in Whaley Bridge.

The report also stated that a number of council senior officers have attended Multi-Agency Gold Incident Command (MAGIC) courses that have been delivered by the Derbyshire Resilience Partnership.

The council's Corporate Management Team has instructed a review to consider any improvement of the council's overall organisational resilience.

The report recommended that the committee notes the report outlining the current preparedness and response arrangements for the council, supports the continued further development training for senior officers at tactical and strategic command levels, and supports the continued partnership working, to collectively prepare and plan the council's arrangements around responding to flooding and severe weather.

Minutes

The minutes of the meeting held on 24 September 2025 were included in the report pack. During that meeting, Chris Henning, Executive Director – Place and Joe Battye, Director – Economy & Regeneration attended the meeting to provide the Committee with an update on the progress of work being undertaken by the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) and the transition of the Transport Function. Councillor Alan Graves, portfolio holder with responsibility for EMCCA and strategic lead for devolution, was also present.

The Place Scrutiny Committee had requested an update on EMCCA following a previous presentation.

Issues raised by members of the committee included:

• Glapwell by-pass
• Access to Shirebrook
• BSIP³
• The proposed Ashbourne relief road
• The possibility of funding for rail freight
• Re-opening of the Peak rail line
• Staveley and Barrow Hill
• White Peak Loop
• Re-opening of the Ivanhoe Line
• The cost of public transport and the decision-making process behind establishing bus routes

Public Questions

The agenda included an opportunity for members of the public to ask questions of the Scrutiny Committee, or council officers who were attending the meeting as witnesses, on any item that was within the scope of the committee. The maximum period of time for questions by the public at a committee meeting was scheduled to be 30 minutes in total.