At the moment, no single organisation is responsible for surface water drainage. But the Environment Agency has called for a clear framework to deal with this and other flooding issues.
Sewers can be the responsibility of the council, water companies, householders or private owners.
Ditches and dykes can belong to the Environment Agency, Internal Drainage Boards, the council or neighbouring landowners or householders.
Floodwater can pass from private to public responsibility and back. This responsibility can also pass between the relevant organisations. Each location is unique.
Dealing with flooding issues can be complex. To help with this, the council has set up the North Lincolnshire Flood Forum.
Recently, the forum was praised for the work it carried out following the summer 2007 floods.
Sir Michael Pitt, Chairman of the South West Strategic Health Authority was tasked by Government Ministers to conduct an independent review of the summer 2007 floods.
He said no other council he has spoken to has done more than North Lincolnshire Council in helping prevent future flooding problems.
He has produced a report on the causes and consequences of the floods. You can view Sir Michael Pitt's report on the Cabinet Office website.
The forum pulls together all the relevant organisations – the council, Environment Agency, Internal Drainage Boards, Severn Trent and Anglian Water. Officers from these organisations meet regularly to look at specific issues and work out solutions.
The document below from the Environment Agency is a quarterly newsletter specifically about flooding related issues.
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The above document is available to download and print. It is provided as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file and therefore requires a suitable reader to view it. The reader can be downloaded free from the Adobe website (full instructions on how to do this are provided on the website).
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