A village suffered serious flooding between December 2012 and March 2013 from a watercourse which flowed through the village. The East Riding of Yorkshire Council liaised with various agencies about the floods, including the Environment Agency (EA), and work was undertaken to alleviate the flooding by pumping water into the watercourse away from residential properties in the village. The claimant was a family farming company that farmed land near the village. As a result of the pumping, the watercourse breached its banks next to one of their fields and they lost part of their carrot crop. The claimant brought a claim for compensation against the Council under section 14A(11) of the 1991 Act.
The tribunal held that the claimant was entitled to compensation from the council under sections 14 and 14A of the 1991 Act.
There was argument as to who carried out the flood relief works and specifically the liability of the EA as they had provided the pumps for the work. The tribunal found that the EA were only exercising their functions under section 13(1) of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 and/or their powers in section 37(3) of the Environment Act 1995 so as to give assistance to the council in the council’s exercise of their flood risk management powers. The EA did not have powers to pump water out of the village under section 165 of the Water Resources Act 1991 (and there is no suggestion that the pumping was in accordance with the EA's national strategies). Accordingly, the tribunal found the council solely liable with no liability towards the EA.
