Case Study
Topic
Impact on Local Authority Performance Targets
Incident / Exercise
Incident: Carlisle Floods, 8 January 2005
Background and Context
On the night of Friday 7 / Saturday 8 January 2005, severe storms and
unprecedented rainfall on already saturated ground fell across Cumbria.
Over the Friday night and into Saturday, this caused extensive flooding and
storm damage particularly in the Carlisle area.
The impacts of this included:
-
3 deaths
-
1,925 homes and business flooded - to 2 metres
-
3,000+ people homeless for up to 12 months+
-
40,000 addresses without power
-
3,000 jobs put at risk.
Additional activity by Carlisle City Council street cleansing and refuse
collection teams:
-
8 - 21 January - 124 City Council employees worked 5,832 hours on street
cleaning.
-
11 - 27 January - in addition to normal refuse collections, we collected
400 tonnes of freezer waste.
-
2,800 tonnes of damaged household goods collected.
-
5,000 fridges, freezers, cookers and washing machines collected.
Cumbria County Council suffered severe impacts on:
-
Bridges
-
Highways
-
Lighting
-
Rights of Way
-
Carlisle Secondary Schools:
-
Newman - Severe Flood Damage
-
St Aidan’s - Severe Flood Damage
-
Morton - Extensive Storm Damage
-
Trinity - Extensive Storm Damage
How the Topic was Handled
The Infrastructure / Public Assets sub group (established as part of the
recovery structure) was co-chaired by Carlisle City Council Director of
Community Services and Cumbria County Council Director of Client Services.
Schools were a particular issue and had their own sub group initially.
The extent of focus on flood recovery by Carlisle City Council generally
delayed programmes and projects and adversely impacted on performance to a
much greater extent than was initially anticipated, even with additional
resources being applied where this was possible.
Waste
Additional waste collection had significant impacts on national best value
performance indicators (BVPIs). Relaxations were sought via
Government Office for the North West, and special dispensation for
flood-related waste was obtained. 'Flood' waste was separated
from the 'normal' waste and not included in the BVPI information.
Cumbria County Council paid for the extra collection of flood-related
waste.
Housing
Carlisle City Council’s housing capital programme had to be re-profiled to
exclusively address flood related housing issues for a 2 year period,
resulting in delay to the existing programme established under the housing
strategy.
Schools
There was severe disruption to students who not only had their schools
severely damaged and were relocated due to their homes being flooded, but
many also lost coursework and revision notes when their homes were flooded.
Schools applied for dispensation to the various examination boards, but
there are no reports of this being accepted by the boards as a valid reason
for any extension of submission times or special consideration in relation
to examination results.
The extent of damage to secondary schools brought forward the major issue
of surplus school places and tied in with the severe damage to schools.
Extra resources were forthcoming from Central Government.
Highways
Meeting the capital cost (£2.5 million) from highways capital maintenance
had an adverse impact on existing programmes and therefore the condition of
the network, and had a knock on effect to BVPIs.
Lessons Identified
Don’t expect any special favours! However it is noted that lessons have
been learned and recent flooding has resulted in some further relaxations
in relation to BVPI’s.
Contacts for Further Information
John Mallinson, Head of Scrutiny and Emergency Planning Services, Carlisle
City Council
Tel: 01228 817010
E-mail: johnm@carlisle.gov.uk
Lindsay Cowen, Emergency Planning Officer, Cumbria County Council
Tel: 01228 815700
E-mail: lindsay.cowen@cumbriaepu.gov.uk
