news page 05

KESWICK FLOOD ACTION GROUP

NEWS and ACTIVITIES

I NDEX Page - 05



INDEX PAGE - 05

08-01-2022 FOUL DISCHARGES Derwent water between the Isthmus and the boat landings. This seepage is from the ‘Old’ municple tip, that was situated on the lakeshore. This has been going on for decades, yet is not dealt with in a satisfactory manner. PICTURE (LJ) A Tangerine foam was coming out of the pipe !

23-01-22 Lynne Jones: Action needed Read and Sign the petition … Contact your MP This is hot on the heels of my sending photographs of disgusting tangerine foam seeping into Derwentwater (from the old council tip near Crow Park, Keswick) to the EA last month, AND the national press sharing some pretty damaging statistics about United Utilities leaks of untreated sewage here. With the tireless work of my local MP, Tim Farron, the campaign is now in the form of an Early Day Motion (EDM) and has been submitted to Parliament. This needs MPs to sign the EDM so it can be debated in the House of Commons and made into law. I need you to contact your local MP and tell them to help stop water pollution in the Lake District National Park.

23-01-22 PRESENTATION ( Slides ) of how Rain event of 27th to 28th October 2021 Effects on local areas and showing Cockermouth as quite different to other areas.

06-02-2022 Defra SPS to Ofwat for PR24 is out … All sources of flooding impact water companies, their customers and local communities, disrupting services and damaging property and the environment. Climate changes are increasing this risk and associated impacts, and the whole sector has a role to play in boosting long-term flood resilience.

25-01-22 IMAGES of the aftermath of recent Storms and their affect on the Keswick Threlkeld old railway line trail. Special reference to erosion and destruction of river banks

23-04-2022 FLOODre and using Insurance to improve resilience on reinstatement. Many of us have been saying for years that flood victims should be professionally advised and helped to reinstate their properties in a more flood resilient way. However, I have been uncomfortable with the encouragement to be "resilient" because I knew that it costs a lot more than just installing a flood door or two. Properly fitting flood doors might hold back water, but water seeps in everywhere else. Making a property as "resilient" as possible, tanking and so on, was way beyond the financial reach of a lot of families - and even something as obvious as re-wiring from top down was not routinely accepted by insurance companies wanting to carry out like-for-like replacement. This scheme, at last, offers a chance to give those recovering from floods a fighting chance to keep as much flood water out of their homes as possible, plus an easier and faster recovery .... next time. It will not take the fear away when it rains but it is a huge - and very welcome - help. water companies …

29-02-2022 Environmental Protection Raw Sewage discharges … The Office for Environmenta Protection ( OEP ) has laumched an investigation regarding the roles of Ofwat, the Environment Agency and Defra Secretary of State in the regulation of Combined Sewer Overflows in England.

05-02-2022 The DEFRA Strategic Policy Statement to Ofwat for PR24 i s out and it includes statements like: challenge and incentivise the water companies to identify and deliver greater customer, societal and environmental benefits from their water and wastewater infrastructure and systems, such as using reservoirs to provide greater flood resilience. Perhaps, after years of stating the obvious, we are getting somewhere IF the EA begins to stand up to water companies …

01-07-2022 Link from STOP THE FLOODS group: Priorities of Environment Agency under its new Chair. Joint meeting with @CommonsEAC

20-07-2022 Reservoir Safety: Dept. for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs written statement. George Eustace The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. 20 July 2022

14-07-2022 UK HEALTH SECURITY AGENCY Guidance Flooding and health: assessment and management of public mental health Published 1 July 2022

28-07-2022 Government to commit. strengthen and modernise reservoir safety regime. Reform of the regulatory programme will be delivered in collaboration with reservoir owners and engineers over the coming years

11-08-2022 Danger of Drought measures exacerbating Flooding Problems 11-08-2022. Email to Emma Gates (Telegraph) regarding recent articles about preparedness for low rainfall and underfilled reservoirs.

14-09-2022 Cumbria ( CCC ) The CCC drop in session for surface water flood risk has been changed to next Tuesday, 2pm to 4pm Keswick Library. There were 2 locations for Keswick: Brundholme Gardens which is now complete and another scheme which is intended to reduce flood risk for lower Crosthwaite Road, Limepots and Glebe Close BUT I am pretty sure that whoever has put this forward does not understand the reroute of Crosthwaite Beck from 2012. It is scheduled for 2027- 28 so I guess I have time to make sure they have the right info (although I have complained about the map being incorrect for 10 years so perhaps not!) If anyone has any areas they are concerned about that need to be included PLEASE let me know. CCC just does surface water and small watercourses, the EA do flooding from major rivers like the Greta. No prizes for anyone who knows how the changes to the county structure/management will impact all this in the end but we'd be keen to know.

KESWICK FLOOD ACTION GROUP

NEWS AND ACTIONS

I NDEX Page - 05



INDEX PAGE 05

2017 and 2021, we invested £15 million of government funding in the NFM programme. The programme was made up of 60 pilots across England: 31-01-2023 UNITED UTILITIES Long term plans for Crummock Water, Chapelhouse Reservoir and Overwater. We've been working with key stakeholders including the Environment Agency, Natural England, Lake District National Park Authority, National Trust, landowners, local authorities and other interest groups to develop long-term plans that would maintain access for visitors, while sensitively returning these water bodies back to a more natural state. Before any work begins, we arranged the first in a series of community drop-in sessions in October 2022 to share our initial proposals. We're planning to hold further update sessions in February 2023 on the following dates, with further sessions planned in September 2023. 30-01-2023 Plans to restore Crummock Water back to nature Once all customers in West Cumbria are supplied by the new pipeline from Thirlmere, United Utilities will stop abstraction for public water supply from Crummock Water, Chapelhouse reservoir and OverwaterStart 24-01-2023 Environmental catastrophe in The Lake District Amazing response to the latest film from the Save Windermere campaign. “Our Fish are Dying” Please continue to share the film across social media as this is the best way to gain traction on the video. The more people that know what happened, the better. We need justice for all the wildlife that we lost on that day on the Cunsey. 14-01-2023 Missing Environment Agency flood Data. Information 'could cost lives' - BBC News Also noticed is that the EA are frantically pumping out the Somerset levels. I wonder if they have done all their environmental studies to find out if they might be causing any damage to any species by protecting communities? One rule for one? 08-01-2023 GOV.UK Site Working together adapting to changing climate - flood and coast. This project explored how authorities work with communities on future planning and decision-making to help reduce flood and coastal erosion risk. Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) research reports’ GOV.UK subject.. RFCCs are shadowy authorities, largely unknown to Flood Groups Volunteers. Maybe a better way of recruiting cannot be found, but meanwhile at least all of the RFCC’s aught to have ONE member from a FLAG ? 07-01-2023 Lynne Jones via Facebook: Thirlmere and Rain Not much wriggle room left in Thirlmere, just 40cms tonight and that will soon be gone I suspect. The Met Office promises another unsettled week ahead as a succession of Atlantic fronts bring regular bouts of rainfall/showers, totals adding up more over and to the west of the Pennines where the majority of the coming week’s rainfall will descend. 31-12-2022 Lynne Jones via Facebook: Thirlmere Releases United Utilities started making the additional releases for some storm space at noon today. Going to be a tad wet over the next few days and into next week but currently there are no specific warnings for our area. 09-11-2022 Lynne Jones: Thirlmere Releases (Additional) Thanks to United Utilities for starting the additional releases from Thirlmere as the level passed 3m. We will need all the storm space if it is a warm wet winter. Doesn't take long for that reservoir to fill up. Drought threats a distant memory. 16-11-2022 RFCCs … Observations by Siriol Hogg ( From Facebook Group 16th Nov 2022 ) As you may be aware, there are 12 Regional Flood And Coastal Committees in England. RFCC’s members are drawn from the EA /or co- opted from Councils. Having attended a few RFCC’s, I came to realise that there were almost no Flood Action Group Members on them, or women. Council Co-Opted members (in the short time of their tenure) , cannot hope to learn all the many myriad of strands relating to flooding, as It is a huge learning curve. Plus they cannot afford to focus all their time on one subject. Often FLAG members can, because they are mainly made up of people who have been flooded, and are passionate about the subject.. RFCCs are shadowy authorities, largely unknown to Flood Groups Volunteers. Maybe a better way of recruiting cannot be found, but meanwhile at least all of the RFCC’s aught to have ONE member from a FLAG ? 28-11-2022-11-2022 Multi Agency Group Meeting. Very useful virtual multi agency meeting earlier this week resulting in a plan to meet up with the council's engineer to tour our key culverts and drains. That way the details of surface water issues can be passed onto the local teams who have to maintain them. Keen to make this work so f i n g e r s crossed. L y n n e J o n e s f r o m Facebook KFAG page 16-11-2022-11-2022 NATIONAL FLOOD FORUM AUTUMN NEWS LETTER We hope you enjoy our Autumn 2022 Newsletter with the latest