Internal Drainage Board Review
Project Update
- 22 May 2008 - Letter from the Project Board on the production of Biodiversity Action Plans:
- 6 February 2008 - Phil Woolas, Minister of State for the Environment, wrote
to all Internal Drainage Boards asking them to start discussions on moving to sub-catchment boards. The following material explains the rationale and decisions behind the Minister's letter:
- Briefing note
- Annex 1 - Indicative requirements for IDBs
- Annex 2 - Area and income of sub-catchment boards
The attached Project Board progress report, produced to accompany the Minister's letter, provides an update on the progress with the implementation plan as a whole and provides revised dates for some specific strands.
Previous Project Board progress reports can be viewed here:
The following maps show the project board's proposed sub-catchments for future management of IDB areas:
Background
A review of Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs) was announced in June 2005 when Elliot Morley, Minister of State (Environment and Climate Change), wrote to IDB Chairmen advising them that Defra intended to engage consultants who, in consultation with the Environment Agency (EA), Association of Drainage Authorities (ADA) and others, would advise on the present IDB arrangements and how well each IDB fits into a broad model of how IDBs should be operating in the present day.
In August 2005, Defra appointed JBA Consulting to undertake an independent review of Internal Drainage Boards. The consultants were asked to make recommendations on suitable organisational arrangements that would ensure boards are efficient, accountable and representative of the interests of both drainage ratepayers and wider interests in delivering their flood management and other responsibilities, and to assess existing boards against these.
JBA Consulting undertook a detailed consultation within the sector including the IDBs themselves, Defra, EA, English Nature, the RSPB, the rate and levy payers and their representative organisations (National Farmers Union, Country Land and Business Association and the Local Government Association (LGA)), and all the other stakeholders who have a direct or indirect interest in water level and flood management in IDB districts.
Following substantial consultation and analysis, JBA Consulting submitted their report to Defra on 28 February 2006.
JBA Report
Accompanying Maps
- Geographical distribution of boards
- Board Administration
- Office Locations
- Annual Income
- Proportion Dependent on Pumping
- Boards with Priority SSSIs
(All the above documents are approximately 650kb in size and are
in Adobe Acrobat PDF format - see our Help link below for more information about this format.)
Internal Drainage Board Review Implementation Plan
Following detailed consideration by the IDB Review Project Board (comprising officials from Defra, ADA, Environment Agency and LGA), a detailed implementation plan has been drawn up for action. A number of individual IDBs as well as Natural England and RSPB have also contributed to the Project Board in a wider advisory capacity, and their input has been welcomed.
Ministers have approved the following package of documents to be sent to all IDBs and written to them as per the attached letter.
- Implementation Plan
- Annex A - IDB Consideration of Future Organisational and Management Arrangements
- Annex B - Amalgamation Process for IDBs
- Annex C - Model Organisation Chart
(All the above documents are
in Adobe Acrobat PDF format - see our Help link below for more information about this format.)
Page last
modified: 22 May 2008
Page published: 14 March 2006