Storm Babet: Nottinghamshire County Council to hold review into flooding response

But the Tories said the Independents were trying to claim credit for work that was already taking place.

More than 900 Nottinghamshire homes were flooded during Storm Babet and flooding impacted a number of locations, including Retford, Hucknall, Eastwood and Edwinstowe.

A review will now be carried out by the council into several areas, including gully cleaning after blocked gullies were blamed by many for making the flooding problems worse in several areas.

The review will be carried out by the council’s pace select committee.

Coun Jason Zadrozny (Ash Ind), leader of the Independent Alliance, said: “It didn’t take a seasoned weather watcher or amateur meteorologist to know that Storm Babet was going to be severe.

"I want to make it clear that we are not blaming individual officers who, like communities across Nottinghamshire, went over and above the call of duty.

"The problem was made worse by the poor state of our gullies and the fact that the council, as the lead flood authority, was wholly unprepared.

"This must never happen again and we need to do more to prevent the heartbreak that Storm Babet caused.”

Coun Neil Clarke (Con), cabinet member for transport and environment, said: “Certain councillors are seeking to claim credit for work that was already happening anyway in response to Storm Babet.

"It is normal procedure in response to any significant flooding events for reports to be prepared, outlining what happened during the flooding incident and how the relevant risk management authorities exercised their responsibilities.”

“The Nottinghamshire Local Resilience Forum also plays a key role both in planning for such events and learning from them.

“Our place select committee will look at all aspects of the local preparation for, and response to, the flooding caused by Storm Babet, including the duties of district councils, for example, in relation to street cleaning, which is vital to ensure that drains do not become blocked.

“If a gully becomes blocked, then obviously major storms highlight such a problem, but Storm Babet was acknowledged as exceptional in terms of the amount of the rain that fell over a short period of time.

A council highways manager added: “Road drains across Nottinghamshire are cleaned on a regular cycle.

"We take a smart, data-led approach to ensure that those drains prone to collecting high levels of silt or debris are cleaned on the most regular basis of all.

“Storm Babet caused an exceptional amount of rainfall with some watercourses reaching record levels.

"In those circumstances, the excessive volume of water can have nowhere to go, so even where the drains are clean and unobstructed, flooding can unfortunately still occur.”

“As managers of flood risk in Nottinghamshire, we have a legal duty to report on flooding incidents under Section 19 of the Flood and Water Management Act (2010).

"The purpose of these reports is not to offer solutions but to ensure that all organisations involved carried out their functions satisfactorily at the time of, and immediately following, the flood.

“So far, there have been 34 flooding incidents across the county and reports for each of these will be discussed at place select committee meeting on March 27.”