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.
The Partnership takes an overview of flood and coastal erosion risk management across Merseyside to:
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 km²) 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:
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 | 79,729 | 8,096 | 5,915 | 1,196 | 306 | 96 | 453 | 130 |
| Liverpool* | 286,108 | 28,856 | 22,805 | 3,556 | 846 | 1,364 | 65 | 220 |
| Sefton* | 162,105 | 81,321 | 43,860 | 21,790 | 12,465 | 3,076 | 89 | 41 |
| Wirral | 183,691 | 18,619 | 13,550 | 2,898 | 987 | 853 | 322 | 9 |
| Merseyside Total | 711,633 | 136,892 | 86,130 | 29,440 | 14,604 | 5,389 | 929 | 400 |
Data Sources:
Note:
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
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:
We seek opportunities to reduce risk through:
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:
Our Partnership meets quarterly at two different levels of 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)
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| Deputy Chair | Councillor Sharon Connor (Liverpool City Council)
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| 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 | |
| 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 |
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.
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.
