Lincolnshire Lead Local Flood Authority incident response capability

Under the Flood and Water Management Act, Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFA) have a responsibility to respond to flood and drainage incidents. RAB were commissioned by Lincolnshire LLFA to develop an organisational structure and other supporting procedures.

Our first step was to consult widely within the council to establish an understanding of current emergency response procedures and the knowledge and experience of staff within the highways department. This enabled us to suggest an organisational structure that integrates and complements current arrangements and those of neighbouring risk management authorities. A suite of four procedures were developed that supports incident response from individual single-agency incidents through to full county wide multi-agency response.

The final stage was to prepare staff identified in duty roles, firstly in terms of training so that there is an acceptable level of awareness and understanding of the new arrangements and the supporting rainfall and flood related products and services. Secondly, this was followed by practice in these roles through a series of control post exercises. Further embedding of this capability has taken place through the flooding incidents that occurred during summer and autumn months of 2012. A baseline of competence has now been established and there’s now a continued responsibility to increase and retain levels of competency and capability.