SWISh aims to build and maintain resilience to address issues and concerns with the water cycle arising from climate change, flooding from coasts, rivers and rifes, while emphasising the importance of water conservation during increasing periods of drought.<\/p>\n
The Manhood Peninsula Surface Water Issues and Solutions Group (<\/strong>SWISh) arose out of discussions at the Manhood Peninsula Partnership into the impact of Operation Watershed, the emergence of flood groups across the peninsula, their relationship with parish councils and the then emerging changes to the existing and newly responsible drainage\u00a0 organisations as a result of the Water Resources Management Act 2011.<\/p>\n SWISh is essentially a working group. Local Flood Action Groups on the Manhood and organisations that have a direct responsibility for drainage and flood defence are getting involved with the overall aim to:<\/p>\n Explore the potential and the form of a scheme of local management of surface water drainage and flood risk within the Peninsula.<\/strong><\/p>\n The work of the group is based on\u00a0the findings of the Defra Flood Resilience Community Pathfinder Scheme, the Manhood Peninsula Surface Water Management Plan and the core of local knowledge and information assembled by flood groups. At present it is anticipated SWISh will explore the following themes:<\/p>\n The Manhood Peninsula offers the potential for a self contained study area, because as a peninsula it is a self contained geographic unit. West Sussex CC has formed one of the first strategic flood boards under the 2011 Act and through the support of the National Flood Forum the county has one of the only flood group forums in the country.<\/p>\n Within this context the initiative on the Peninsula may have recognition at a national level as a pilot demonstration project.<\/p>\n Key Aims<\/strong><\/p>\n To provide a unified system of land drainage across all the Manhood Parishes that, taking into account the amount of resources available, maximises the level of protection from flood risk for all communities.<\/p>\n The group works with West Sussex County Council, Chichester District Council, Southern Water, the Environment Agency and other stakeholders to fulfil elements of the Manhood Peninsula Surface Water Management Plan 2015. To further this aim WSCC have produced a number of documents to help parishes become an effective first point of contact for riparian maintenance and riparian obstruction issues. These documents can be downloaded via the following links:<\/p>\n Letter template for Parish Councils for Riparian Maintenance<\/a><\/p>\n Letter template for Parish Councils for Riparian Obstruction<\/a><\/p>\n Ordinary watercourse consenting and enforcement process for Parish Councils<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Follow this link to\u00a0read the SWISh Terms of Reference<\/a>.<\/p>\n In addition the West Manhood Drainage Improvement Group have put together a document that identifies the West Manhood Group approach to defining and resolving land drainage\u00a0issues.<\/span><\/p>\n\n