Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council and East Devon District Council (EDDC) have achieved a new operational milestone by establishing a shared service. Together they will provide an effective and coordinated approach to minimise flood and coastal erosion risks to people and communities within their regions, as well as offering their expertise across the South West.

Since September 2021, the BCP Flood & Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) team have been providing support and guidance to other South-West local authorities including New Forest, Dorset, Exeter, Teignbridge and Torridge. EDDC has taken the step to align their services where staff budgets, skills and resources are fully shared.

Cllr Andy Hadley Portfolio Holder for Climate Response, Environment and Energy, at BCP Council said:

“Our operating model has enabled us to deliver a range of high-quality FCERM projects by making best use of central government funding. This has attracted and grown our in-house specialist team at no additional cost to the Council and helped us share our technical expertise with others. We are pleased that EDDC has seen the value and additional benefits this brings to project delivery and whole-heartedly welcome them to a shared service. This is just a first step to co-ordinate and address the increasing risk of climate change across our at-risk communities.”

Councillor Geoff Jung, Portfolio Holder for Coast, Country and Environment, East Devon District Council said:

“We were aware of the BCP FCERM team’s growing reputation for project delivery and collaborated with them on a number of Flood & Coastal projects, receiving a good-value service. This is an exciting and beneficial alignment of teams where EDDC can now draw on the skills and expertise of the shared service to help continue progressing the crucial work to make our coastlines more resilient into the future.”

The national FCERM strategy encourages Councils to form partnerships.

Ron Curtis, Environment Agency Area Flood Risk Manager (Wessex), said:

“Partnership working is essential to address the increasing flood and coastal erosion risk as a result of climate change, so we are delighted to see BCP and EDDC taking this innovative approach to share resources.”

The new shared service will operate under the name South West Flood and Coastal which recognises the broader support also provided to neighbouring authorities. 

As well as designing and delivering large government funded projects, the main functions of the joint FCERM service will be to set long term Policies and Strategies for managing flood and coastal erosion risk, maintaining FCERM assets and influencing the industry through sound research and innovation.