Minutes:
(a) Former Councillors David Spear and Frank Purcell The Chair asked those present for a minutes silence to reflect on former Councillors, David Spear and Frank Purcell, who had sadly passed away recently.
(b) Flooding in Barnstaple 17th August 2020 The Chair welcomed Alex Miles to the meeting, Emergency Planning Officer, North Devon Council, for an overview and update on the flooding incident which happened in Barnstaple on 17th August 2020.
The Emergency Planning Officer gave the Committee the following overview and update:
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The Emergency Planning Officer confirmed the Section 19 report would be made available to Members for their consideration.
The Chair invited Councillor Biederman to address the Committee. Councillor Biederman expressed his concern that it took the emergency services too long to declare a critical incident. He asked if the roads to the affected areas should not have been closed as the movement of traffic caused waves of water to enter nearby buildings and making the situation worse. The Emergency Planning Officer replied that this idea would be fed back to the Devon County Highways team.
Councillor Leaver addressed the Committee to request that in an event such as this could the Ward members of affected areas be made aware of the incident.
The Chair remarked at the speed of the clean up as he had visited the town the next day. He went on to encourage Devon County Council to revisit their cleaning schedule as some drains had not been cleared for three years.
Councillor Leaver requested that parking arrangements be made easier for contractors who were now working on the affected properties but having difficulties obtaining parking permits for the residential streets they were working in, as each individual van had to have its own permit and this was time consuming and frustrating when the contractors were visiting more than one property. The Emergency Planning Officer responded that this would be taken back to Devon County Council as a lesson learnt. There would be a debrief and evaluation session which would help with future responses. The Head of Environmental Health and Housing was in discussion with Devon County Council on the matter of any available funding for those householders who did not have insurance.