Agenda and minutes

When the continuous alarm sounds you must evacuate the building by the nearest available fire exit. Members and visitors should proceed to the visitors’ car park at the front of the building and await further instructions (during office hours staff should proceed to their usual assembly point; outside of office hours proceed to the visitors’ car park). Please do not re-enter the building unless instructed to do so.

In the event of a fire any person with a disability should be assisted in leaving the building.

87.1           The evacuation procedure, as noted on the Agenda, was advised to those present.

87.2           The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced the representatives from Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service, Gloucestershire Local Resilience Forum, Gloucestershire Police and Severn Trent Water. 

88.1           Apologies for absence were received from Councillors T A Spencer and P D Surman.  There were no substitutions for the meeting.

88.2           The Chair advised that Councillor K J Berry was not a Member of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee but she was a Member of the Scrutiny Review of Water Supply Outage Working Group in her capacity as Lead Member for Community, which included emergency planning, and would participate in the hearing on that basis.  It was noted that Councillors G F Blackwell and J Greening had indicated that they would be observing the meeting.

89.1           The Committee’s attention was drawn to the Tewkesbury Borough Council Code of Conduct which was adopted by the Council on 26 June 2012 and took effect from 1 July 2012.

89.2           The following declarations were made:

89.3           No further declarations were made on this occasion.

To note the background information to the Scrutiny Review of Water Supply Outage and to conduct the Scrutiny Hearing. 

90.1           Attention was drawn to the report of the Scrutiny Review of Water Supply Outage Working Group, circulated at Pages No. 1-5, which provided background information in relation to the review.  Members were asked to note the information provided and to conduct the Scrutiny Hearing.

90.2           Tewkesbury Borough Council’s Chief Executive explained that the purpose of the Hearing was to investigate the issues surrounding a significant water outage which had affected over 10,000 homes in Tewkesbury Borough in December 2017.  Given the seriousness of the event, and considering there had been previous outages, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had felt that it was appropriate to undertake a review on behalf of the Council in order to understand more about the incident and the lessons which could be learnt to prevent or mitigate future impact.  The Overview and Scrutiny Committee had met as a Working Group on four occasions and had contacted Parish and Town Councils and the local community – via the Citizens’ Panel – in order to develop the hearing process.  The aim of the hearing was to have a discussion based on a series of questions grouped into sections which would bring forward information and actions in order to produce a report which would be useful to all agencies in the future.  He stressed that whilst there may be challenging questions, it was very much about working in partnership to learn lessons and improve the service received by residents in future. 

90.3           It was subsequently

RESOLVED          That the background information to the Scrutiny Review of Water Supply Outage be NOTED and the Scrutiny Hearing be conducted.

90.4           In outlining how the hearing would run, the Chair explained that there would be a short presentation from Severn Trent Water giving a brief overview of the water network relating to the incident and the impacts of the recent deregulation of the supply of water including Severn Trent’s relationship with Waterplus.  A series of questions had been prepared in advance and these would be put to the various witnesses in order.  After each question had been asked, there would be an opportunity for Members to ask follow-up questions.  He indicated that learning points would be flagged up throughout the hearing.

90.5           The Severn Trent Water Head of Asset Management apologised to those who had been impacted by the outage and acknowledged how difficult it was to be without water.  He stressed that this sort of incident was rare and he extended his thanks to all of the partner organisations that had helped with the response.  As a company, Severn Trent Water welcomed sessions such as this to look at lessons which could be learnt in order to make improvements for the future.  He drew attention to a simplified diagram of the network surrounding Tewkesbury and explained that a number of works had been carried out over the years including a fluvial wall to protect the treatment works if river levels started to rise.  If there was a problem with the treatment  ...  view the full minutes text for item 90.