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Kent County Council has specific responsibilities to help
manage the problem of flooding and these are divided between four
specialist units:
- network management
- environmental management
- land use and transportation
- emergency planning.
Network management
The network management unit has three main areas of
operation:
Road drainage
The highway authority helps to ensure that roads are safe to a
standard that is suitable for use by clearing surface water that
has fallen directly onto the county's roads from the skies.
The highway authority also makes sure that any new structures
for which they are responsible, such as bridges, do not obstruct
the natural flow of water or increase the risk of flooding.
To find out more please visit our
highway drainage information page.
Structures
Network management, along with district councils and the
Environment Agency, carry out reviews on existing highway
structures.
These extensive inspections identify any places where the
structures present an increased risk of flooding and avoid
potential problems.
Coastal defence
Sea defences that protect low-lying areas against the sea are
the Environment Agency's responsibility.
However, Kent County Council helps by providing some of the
funding that goes into coast protection works that guard natural
defences from the sea.
These works are carried out by maritime district councils,
although Kent County Council will inspect and maintain flood
defences if required.
To find out more about coastal defences please see our
coastal defences information page.
Environmental management
Environmental management works with key partners in Kent to
promote best environmental design practice in flood defence
planning.
We discourage new developments being built on flood plains. We
also identify opportunities for active habitat management and
creation in the flood plain to reduce the potential impacts of
flooding.
Land use and transport
Kent County Council plans ahead to make sure that developments
and projects such as new schools, housing and roads do not increase
the risk of flooding.
Various documents such as the
Kent and Medway structure plan provide strategic planning
guidelines on the location of future developments.
The use of these guidelines ensures that any decisions made on
planning applications fully consider flood risk and drainage issues
first.
Emergency Planning
The emergency planning unit monitors the risk of flooding
through flood warnings and direct contact with the
Environment Agency (link opens in a new
window).
In discussion with the Environment Agency and the emergency
services it decides whether formal action is necessary to address
the risk of flooding or actual flooding.
If it is agreed that action is necessary, the unit activates the
appropriate local authority response from both Kent County Council
and the relevant district council(s).
Activities may include:
- placing of sandbags
- closing and signing roads
- providing transport to evacuate residents
- opening and manning rest centres to care for evacuees
- assisting with post-flood clean up
The local authority element of the response is managed both from
emergency centres within each authority and through representation
at a joint strategic control that would be established, for example
Kent Police headquarters.
The emergency planning unit also works with Kent County Council
and the district councils to help them develop their plans for
responding to flooding, and delivers training exercises to assist
them in testing the effectiveness of these
plans. |