SOCIAL housing tenants in Wellington should receive more support in the event of future flooding, following an internal Somerset Council review.
The town was badly hit by flooding in late September as Storm Agnes swept across the Westcountry and caused damage to homes and businesses and created chaos for motorists.
Among the properties directly affected by the flooding were 19 council-owned bungalows in Bovet Street and two council houses in Oaken Ground, Rockwell Green.
The council’s housing service responded to the flooding, providing sandbags clearing drains, and evacuating tenants of five of the properties into local hotels.
Now, the council has published a report on the flooding event and highlighted how it could respond better in the future.
Head of housing, income, and tenancy management Simon Lewis said it had been a ‘very traumatic time for all affected’ and his fellow officers had been working hard to provide ‘comprehensive support’ to all impacted tenants and their families.
Mr Lewis singled out several aspects of the council’s response which worked well or had a positive impact, including:
Officers being on the ground every day and night to support residents, going ‘above and beyond’ and working anti-social hours and volunteering their time
Covering the cost of replacing carpets and removing furniture while the homes were cleaned out, which many tenants ‘would have struggled to afford’
Providing dehumidifiers to all properties early in the process and paying for the extra heating and electricity costs associated with using them
Implementing ‘creative solutions’ to rehouse tenants with complex needs, including one elderly partially-sighted tenant and others with mental health needs or ‘significant hoarding’
Regular communication with displaced tenants to ensure they could move back in as soon as possible
However, he also identified a number of areas where the response could have been better – including:
Having an allocated co-ordinator as a single point of contact for the emergency response to ensure work was prioritised, remove duplication and prevent officer burn-out
Improving access to the Deane Helpline and increasing the resources allocated to it
Increasing the range of officers on call for emergencies, particularly when
bad weather was forecast
Making it easier to secure temporary accommodation, which posed a ‘significant challenge’ in caring for residents
Improving co-ordination with cleaning companies to dry out and sanitise properties
Helping tenants to secure contents insurance and specifying what was and was not covered by the council’s insurance
Providing a clearer policy on what happens when a tenant refuses to leave a flooded or contaminated property
Mr Lewis said: “We have held two ‘lessons learnt’ meetings with a cross-section of staff and services involved in the incident, and are developing a flowchart setting out the ideal process flow for future flooding incidents.
“We also intend to adapt this for other similar events such as fire.
“The process flowchart will be accompanied by prompt lists for staff involved in future incidents to aid them in what is required.
“We will be concluding this work with an action plan to follow-up and resolve some of the issues identified and will get this approved by the council’s housing senior management team.
“A separate meeting has taken place with property services to identify properties and addresses that are prone to flooding to agree appropriate mitigation measures that can be put in place to reduce the risk of future flooding and/or limit the extent of damage caused.
“This includes improvement to drainage, guttering, and downpipes, and engagement of specialist flood consultants to assess other measures.”