Flood Risk Management Strategy - Find a freedom of information request

Please treat this as a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Please provide the following information:

1. Is the council a Lead Local Flood Authority? If so, please provide the number of people employed by the council in flood risk-related roles for each year from 2010 to the present date, or most recently available.

2. Has the council developed or is it currently developing a Flood Risk Management Strategy for 2021 onwards? If so, please provide any estimate the council has made of how much it would cost to implement the measures proposed in the latest version of this document.

3. Has the council ever applied for Flood Defence Grant in Aid to fund or partly fund flood risk management schemes? If so, please provide the total amount of grant applied for and the total amount awarded. Please provide these figures annually from 2015 to the present day.

1. Yes, Lincolnshire County Council is a Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA). The County Council has had a specialist flood risk management team in place since 2015. From 2015 to 2020 it consisted of four full-time employees and currently consists of six full-time employees. The way in which the Council operates as LLFA means that from 2012, when LLFAs were established, the responsibilities of the Lead Local Flood Authority were distributed across a range of service areas. Despite the establishment of a dedicated flood risk management team in 2015 it is still the case that the undertaking of operational flood-related matters is spread across several service areas, such as Development Management (statutory consultee role), highways, Technical Services Partnership (design & delivery), Internal Drainage Boards (LCC's agents for Land Drainage consenting & enforcement). This means it is not possible to give the information requested in the format requested.

2. Yes, LCC have a Strategy, which can be found here https://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/flood-risk-management/implementing-managementstrategy and https://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/directory-record/63754/flood-risk-andwater-management-strategy Implementation of the measures identified in the strategy will be by means of the Partnership Framework delivered through various partner Risk Management Authority programmes of work. Information on the Partnership Framework is included in the strategy documents. As such, individual practical measures to manage flood risk are not identified in the Strategy itself and are not therefore costed.

3.Yes, the council has previously applied for Flood Defence Grant in Aid to fund or partly fund flood risk management schemes. The total amount of grant applied for and the total amount awarded are the same, and since 2015 totals £2,000,983. The following table illustrates the annual totals of grant drawn down since 2015, broken down by financial years. For the avoidance of doubt, there is indicative grant funding approved for the current year but so far no grant has been applied for or drawn down, hence 'zero' in 2021/22.

LINCOLNSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL - FLOOD DEFENCE GRANT IN AID DRAWN DOWN SINCE 2015