Merseyside

Merseyside Flood & Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) Partnership

Who we are

The Merseyside FCERM Partnership is a collective grouping of the main authorities who manage flood risk and coastal erosion in Merseyside; that is Knowsley, Liverpool City, Sefton, and Wirral Councils who lead on local flood risk management, the Environment Agency, and United Utilities and Dŵr Cymru / Welsh Water (for a small section of Wirral) as the water and sewerage companies.

The Mersey Rivers Trust is a partner organisation who also provide local expertise and with whom we work closely with in supporting the delivery of water quality improvements and catchment scale benefits to our rivers and waterways

Our Partnership also works closely with St Helens and Halton Councils who sit within the Cheshire Mid-Mersey FCERM Partnership in matters relating to the Liverpool City Region (LCR) Combined Authority. Click here for further information.

What we do

The Partnership takes an overview of flood and coastal erosion risk management across Merseyside to:

Identify priorities and steer the use of our resources.
Vote on changes to the Local Levy raised by the North West Regional Flood and Coastal Committee.
Support and deliver investment which is good value for money and benefits our communities.

Click here to see our interactive map and search for schemes, groups, and events going on in your area.

Flood and Coastal Risks in Merseyside

Located on the coast at the lower reaches of the Alt-Crossens and Lower Mersey river catchments, the area covering our Partnership spans 249 square miles (645 km^²) bordering Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south and south-west, and the Irish Sea to the west.

A mix of high-density urban areas, suburbs, semi-rural and rural locations makes for a varied use of land, but overwhelmingly Merseyside is urban. Liverpool Urban Area is the fifth most populous conurbation in England with its urban core focused around Liverpool City Centre.

In our Business Plan we have identified several key flood and coastal risks in Merseyside:

Increasing flood and coastal erosion risks as a result of climate change
Predominant surface water flood risk
Ageing drainage infrastructure
Rising groundwater levels
Management of our coastline into the future

You can find more information about these risks in our Partnership Business Plan.

Table 1 puts the number of people at risk of flooding in the context of the size of the Local Authority’s population. As a result of its urban nature, Merseyside has a high surface water flood risk relative to other areas in the North West, whilst the flood risk from rivers and the sea is comparatively low.

Table 1: Flood Risks in Merseyside

			Properties at Surface Water Flood Risk			Properties at River and Sea Flood Risk
Local Authority Area	Total Properties	Total Properties at Flood Risk	Low 0.1% chance	Medium 1% chance	High 3.33% chance	Low 0.1% chance	Medium 1% chance	High 3.33% chance
Knowsley	67,120	8,096	5,915	1,196	306	96	453	130
Liverpool*	223,004	28,856	22,805	3,556	846	1,364	65	220
Sefton*	129,669	81,321	43,860	21,790	12,465	3,076	89	41
Wirral	152,064	18,619	13,550	2,898	987	853	322	9
Merseyside Total	573,782	136,892	86,130	29,440	14,604	5,389	929	400

Data Sources:

Surface Water: North West Surface Water Property Count Dataset based on National Receptor Database 2011 [July 2019]
Rivers and Sea: North West Flood Risk Management Plan [2015]

Note:

‘Properties’ includes both residential and non-residential property.
* Liverpool City Council and Sefton Council have benefited from additional local modelling of surface water flood risk, with support from United Utilities and the Environment Agency. Outputs from that work are not shown in Table 2.

Further information on flood and coastal erosion risks in your local area can be found:

On the Environment Agency’s website here.

On your Council’s website (below) within their:
- Local Flood Risk Management Strategy
- Strategic Flood Risk Assessment
- Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment
- Published Section 19 Flood Investigation Reports

Knowsley Council – Flood Risk Management

Liverpool City Council – Local flood risk management and drainage

Sefton Council – Drainage, Coastal Erosion and Flood Prevention

Wirral Council – Flooding

Managing flood and coastal risks in Merseyside

We work together as partners and with our communities and wider stakeholders to better manage and, where possible, reduce the impacts of flooding and coastal change in Merseyside. We do this in two main ways; proactively and reactively.

We proactively manage risk by:

Commenting on planning applications to ensure water on new developments is managed sustainably and in a way that doesn’t increase risk to existing property and infrastructure.
Working with planning colleagues and neighbourhoods to encourage appropriate policies for flooding and coastal change in Local Plans and Neighbourhood Plans.
Issuing consents and permits for some works on watercourses.
Maintaining a register of assets which can have an impact on flood risk.
Delivering our Coastal Strategies for Sefton and Wirral and supporting delivery of the Shoreline Management Plan for the North West.

We seek opportunities to reduce risk through:

Delivering our Investment Programme 2015 – 2021. Click here to see The Flood Hub’s interactive map and search for schemes, groups and events going on in your area. For more details on the programme, click here.
Working with wider stakeholders, such as the Liverpool City Region, to seek multiple benefits from non-flood and coastal investment.
Taking enforcement action on watercourses, where appropriate.
The Environment Agency delivering a five year flood and coastal risk management asset maintenance programme. Click here for details.

Our Business Plan 2019 – 2022

We have produced a Business Plan for our Partnership that sets out the key risks and challenges facing Merseyside in relation to flooding and coastal change, and consequently, the priorities the Partnership intends to focus on and address through action in the short term – the three years from 2019 to 2022.

You can download the Business Plan here.

Our priorities are:

Through the delivery of actions identified in our Business Plan we will:

Prioritise our resources in a way that responds to local risks, challenges and needs.
Maximise opportunities to attract investment and involvement from wider stakeholders.
Increase awareness of flood and coastal erosion risks.
Increase transparency of the work we do.

Governance Arrangements

Our Partnership meets quarterly at two different levels of Group:

Strategic Partnership Group

Strategic Partnership Group
Overview	A Local Authority Councillor-led group tasked with steering, overseeing and monitoring the strategic direction of flood and coastal erosion risk management in Merseyside.
Purpose	1. Ensuring that the needs of the North West RFCC and the representations of the Environment Agency and Defra are disseminated and understood at the Merseyside sub-regional level. 2. Enabling open discussion and ensuring fair and strong representation of the Merseyside FCERM Partnership on the North West RFCC. 3. Voting annually on changes to Local Levy raised by the North West RFCC. 4. Endorsing and co-ordinating funding bids for the Merseyside partners. 5. Applying the North West RFCC’s objectives locally and setting local priorities and overseeing the progress of their delivery.
Chair	Councillor Patrick McKinley (Sefton Council)
Deputy Chair	Councillor Sharon Connor (Liverpool City Council)
Other Partners who attend	Councillor Elizabeth Grey (Wirral Council) Councillor Shelley Powell (Knowsley Council) Environment Agency United Utilities Mersey Rivers Trust North West RFCC Chair
Representation at the North West Regional Flood and Coastal Committee	Two Councillors attend the North West RFCC to represent the Merseyside FCERM Partnership on a rotational basis. The Chair represents Merseyside at RFCC’s Finance Sub Group.

Tactical Officers Group

Tactical Officers Group
Overview	A Local Authority officer-led group attended by technical lead officers from risk management authorities and other partner organisations.
Purpose	This group co-ordinates delivery, shares skills and establishes priorities and actions to facilitate joint working. It also enables and reports on the delivery of agreed flood and coast priorities and working initiatives as directed by the Strategic Partnership Group.
Chair	Kevin McKeown (Knowsley Council)
Deputy Chair	Paul Wisse (Sefton Council)
Other Partners who attend	Wirral Council Liverpool City Council Environment Agency United Utilities Mersey Rivers Trust

Working with the Liverpool City Region (LCR)

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority is led by Metro Mayor Steve Rotherham and brings together Liverpool City Region’s six local authorities – Halton, Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral – to work together to make investments in areas such as transport, employment, culture, digital and housing.

The aim of the Liverpool City Region is to increase growth to the local economy and to attract more residents and businesses to live, work, visit or invest in the region through the use of its devolved powers.

Further information can be found on the website here.

The Merseyside FCERM Partnership also works closely with the St Helens Council and Halton Council who sit within the Cheshire Mid-Mersey FCERM Partnership in matters relating to the Liverpool City Region (LCR) Combined Authority. Warrington Council and West Lancashire Council are Associate Members of the Combined Authority.

2019 Year of the Environment

In 2018, the Government launched its 25 year plan for the environment, pledging that we would be the first generation to leave our environment in a better state than we found it. As part of the plan, 2019 was declared as a national Year of Green Action across the UK – download this pack for more information.

The Liverpool City Region’s Local Nature Partnership, Nature Connected, is taking the initiative, along with the Combined Authority, the Environment Agency and Natural England, to help deliver a Liverpool City Region focused Year of Action for the Environment, working with a broad range of partners from different sectors across the City Region. Click here to visit the website.

The Liverpool City Region recently held its first ever Environmental Summit on Friday 8th November featuring a celebration of a year of community environmental projects. Click here to find out more.

The Flood Hub