Association of Drainage Authorities

Board Meeting
2023-07-18 | TBC
More information to follow

Flood & Water Live
2023-07-05 - 2023-07-06 | Dyson Farming, Carrington, Lincolnshire, PE22 7JD
The working demonstration for managing watercourses & flood defence. See the latest plant machinery, pumps, technology & innovations.

Technical & Environmental Committee
2023-05-24 | Environment Agency, TEAM 2100, 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0SR, United Kingdom

Policy & Finance Comittee
2023-05-23 | Environment Agency, TEAM 2100, 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0SR, United Kingdom

Embracing Equity: Developing Successful Working Partnerships
2023-04-27 10:00 - 12:30 (Europe/London) | Online
In celebration of International Women’s Day 2023, ADA and Lower Medway IDB are pleased to announce an upcoming free online workshop for members of both ADA and Women in FCERM (WiFCERM) around the theme of Embracing Equity: Developing Successful Working Partnerships as an offering to support WiFCERM goals.
Lower Medway IDB have collaborated with Nicola Williams, a relationships coach and trainer, to bring ADA and WiFCERM members this workshop, supported on a cost neutral basis by ADA and Lower Medway IDB.
Announcing the workshop, Priscilla Haselhurst, Clerk & Engineer to Lower Medway IDB said:
As a WiFCERM committee member, I wanted us to make an offering that was tangible and useful across the FCERM sphere, which coincided with International Women’s Day.
“Successful working partnerships are key for positive societal and environmental outcomes, and essential in our response to the climate and ecological emergency. Responsibility for managing flood and coastal risk lies within different organisations and effective action can only happen by working together. Consequently, differing priorities and ways of working requires good relationships to ensure successful outcomes.
How can we develop quality working relationships that ensure effective impact?
During this 2.5 hour workshop, with a further optional 30 minutes for Q&A session.
We will learn:

What equity is, why it is good, and how we can uphold it as an organisational and /personal value.
How a positive relationship with ourselves supports positive working relationships with others and ways to cultivate this.
How to connect well with others and stay connected as we communicate and negotiate, to create resilient partnerships based on mutual trust and respect.
How we can make a personal commitment to what has been learned.

The workshop will be held on Zoom on Thursday 27 April 10.00-12:30 and will have limited spaces to ensure that we can gain the most value from the workshop.
To register a firm commitment to join the workshop, please email: enquiries@lmidb.co.uk

Keeping Our Rivers Flowing Summit 2023
2023-03-29 | National Farmers Union, Stoneleigh, Agriculture House, Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, CV8 2TZ, United Kingdom
Register: Keeping Our Rivers Flowing Summit 2023
Hosted by: ADA, CLA, Environment Agency, and National Farmers’ Union (NFU)
Chaired by: Tom Bradshaw, Deputy President of the NFU
Date: Wednesday 29 March 2023
Venue:National Farmers Union Conference Centre Stoneleigh CV8 2TZ
Theme:Adapting To Our Changing Climate
Summit Agenda – Coming soon
Kindly sponsored by: Bedford Pumps. Highly experienced British manufacturer of robust pumping plant for the water and wastewater industry.
As climate change makes the UK warmer and wetter, we will be visited by extreme weather more frequently in the future and must ensure our landscape and communities adapt and become more resilient. This will mean changes in how we manage and enhance our rivers and catchments, whilst reducing emissions from construction, maintenance, and pumping.
Chairing the Summit and delivering the keynote address, will be the Deputy President of the NFU, Tom Bradshaw, who has officeholder responsibilities for climate change, net zero, and water at the union.
Other confirmed speakers include: David Mitchell, who is the Senior Manager at the Somerset Rivers Authority; Kelly Hewson-Fisher, the NFU’s National Water Resources Specialist; and Daniel Johns, Managing Director of Water Resources East. Further speakers for evidence sessions are being finalised.
Starting at 10.30, the day will include the evidence sessions aimed at sharing thinking towards future flood and water management strategies for our river catchments with ample time for questions, discussion, and a networking buffet lunch.
Presentations;
Russell Turner, Environment Agency
Lisa Edwards, NFU
Caroline Douglass, Environment Agency
Kelly Hewson-Fisher, NFU
Daniel Johns, Water Resources East

Board Meeting
2023-02-15 | Online

Policy & Finance Comittee
2023-02-03 10:30 - 12:30 | Online
Download the agenda here

Environment Day 2023
2023-02-02 | Park Farm, Off Deer Park Way, Thorney, Peterbrough, PE6 0SY, United Kingdom
Thank you to everyone from across the lowland water management community who attended our first ever ADA Environment Day on Thursday 2 February at Park Farm in Thorney, near Peterborough.
It was a pleasure to welcome board members and officers from drainage districts across both England and Wales to hear from so many knowledgeable experts on what was aptly World Wetlands Day. The day exceeded our expectations in terms of attendance, with positive engagement around all of the topics discussed. It truly made the day so useful, informative, and a pleasure to host.
We hope this event has helped spread learning about best practice approaches and given drainage boards greater confidence to enhance their local aquatic environment whilst managing and maintaining safe water levels and flood risk infrastructure. As the event chairperson, Michael Sly commented, “our drains are our inverted hedgerows”, acting as natural highways to provide ecological connectivity across the Fens, in the same way that our hedgerows do in other farmed landscapes.
Our thanks go to all of our fantastically informative speakers for their contributions, to Martin van Nieuwenhuijzen from Aquatic Control Engineering (ACE) for their generous sponsorship and support, and to our delegates for participating on the day. Last, but by no means least, thank you to Michael Sly for chairing the day wonderfully and to the team at Park Farm for making us so welcome at their fantastic meeting venue in the heart of the Fens. We really enjoyed putting the day together and are grateful for the positive feedback we have received during and following the event.
All of the presentation slides from the day can now be downloaded at the link below. We are already thinking about next year’s Environment Day when we will return to Park Farm. If you have a topic suggestion, or would be interested in presenting at next year’s event, please do get in touch.
Environment Day 2023 | Agenda | Environment Day 2023 | Presentations | Image Gallery

ADA Annual Water Management Conference
2022-11-09 | Park Farm, Off Deer Park Way, Thorney, Peterbrough, PE6 0SY, United Kingdom
More information to follow.

ADA Board Meeting
2022-10-12 | Online

ADA Annual General Meeting
2022-09-28 10:30 - 12:30 | Online
The directors and staff of ADA would like to invite our members to join us at our next Annual General Meeting. We set aside discussion time for ADA members to receive reports, review accounts, and vote on items relating to the Association’s business and governance. Any ADA member can raise a matter for discussion at an AGM in advance of the meeting.

Policy & Finance Committee Meeting
2022-09-21 10:30 - 14:30, 2022-05-25 10:30 - 14:30 | CIWEM, 106-109 Saffron Hill, London, EC1N 8QS
ADA’s Policy & Finance Committee discusses governance, legal, financial, audit and policy matters.
More information to follow.

Flood Expo
2022-09-14 - 2022-09-15 | NEC Birmingham, North Avenue, Marston Green, Birmingham, B40 1NT, United Kingdom
The Flood Expo is Europe’s largest exhibition designed to help the most progressive flood professionals and property owners discover the latest innovative products, services and strategies that transform the way flooding is predicted, prevented, and managed.

Technical & Environmental Committee Meeting
2022-09-13 10:30 - 14:30 | CIWEM, 106-109 Saffron Hill, London, EC1N 8QS
ADA’s Technical & Environmental Committee discusses engineering, health and safety, environmental and operational matters.
Agenda | Supporting Papers | Committee Action Log
Draft Minutes

Great Yorkshire Show
2022-07-12 - 2022-07-15 | Great Yorkshire Showground, Railway Road, Harrogate, HG2 8NZ, United Kingdom
England’s Premier agricultural event celebrating farming & country life, at the Showground in Harrogate, N Yorks.

ADA Board Meeting
2022-07-06 10:30 - 15:00 | CIWEM, 106-109 Saffron Hill, London, EC1N 8QS
Start time: 10:30 for 11:00 start.

Lincolnshire Show
2022-06-22 - 2022-06-23 | Lincolnshire Showground, Lincoln, LN2 2NA, United Kingdom
The Lincolnshire Show is one of the county’s flagship events and truly has something for each of the 60,000 visitors to enjoy.
The Lincolnshire Show is organised by the Lincolnshire Agricultural Society, a registered charity whose aims are to educate about food, farming and the countryside.

Flood & Coast
2022-06-07 - 2022-06-09 | The Telford International Centre, International Way, Telford, TF3 4JH
Flood & Coast is a unique event that attracts exhibitors, speakers and visitors from around the world to advance the debate about the impacts of climate change on flood and coastal erosion risk management (FCERM).
Produced by CIWEM in partnership with the Environment Agency, the event brings together professionals across the FCERM community to discuss innovative ways of working together and with the communities most affected by flooding and coastal erosion in today’s changing climate.

FREE Flood & Coast Conference places for Local Authority and IDB representatives
The Flood & Coast team are delighted to offer free three-day conference passes to representatives of local authorities and internal drainage boards.
Please note that this is subject to availability, so we urge you to sign up (using a local authority or IDB email address as proof of your affiliation) as soon as possible using this link: https://registration.allintheloop.net/register/event/local-authorities-t9zd.
The full programme for the event from 7 to 9 June is here: https://www.floodandcoast.com/assets/FC-22-Brochure-final.pdf

Technical & Environmental Committee Meeting
2022-05-24 10:30 | CIWEM, 106-109 Saffron Hill, London, EC1N 8QS
ADA’s Technical & Environmental Committee discusses engineering, health and safety, environmental and operational matters.
More information to follow.

Keep Our Rivers Flowing Summit 2022
2022-05-12 11:30 - 16:00 | Oak Tree Suite, Stoneleigh Park, Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, CV8 2LG, United Kingdom
A partnership of four leading water and land management organisations are holding a national summit in May to highlight the importance of managing rivers and their catchments throughout England.
Register: Keeping Our Rivers Flowing Summit 2022
Hosted by: ADA, CLA, Environment Agency, and National Farmers’ Union (NFU)
Chaired by: Robert Caudwell, ADA Chair
Date: Thursday 12 May 2022
Venue: NAEC, Oak Trees Suite, Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire
Directions to the Venue | Parking at the venue
Theme: Integrating river and landscape
Summit Agenda
Kindly sponsored by: Aquatic Control Engineering. Experts in water flow management and flood defence systems.
The UK and Europe have experienced an increasing frequency and intensity of flooding from our rivers in recent years, sometimes with devastating effects upon the environment, local communities and economies. This summit seeks to increase awareness of not only the challenges that many rivers face, but also the practical steps that are being taken to maintain and enhance the capacity of our rivers and their catchments in coping with flood flows.
With environmental land management sitting at the heart of future agricultural reform in England, the Summit will look at how flood storage and natural flood management can combine with the maintenance of our rivers to reduce the risk of flooding.
Talking about the Summit, Robert Caudwell, Event Chair & ADA Chair said: “In the UK we need a range of targeted measures within our river catchments to address the impacts of flooding. This Summit offers an opportunity to bring farmers, land managers and flood management experts together to think about how land management can complement efforts to reduce the risk of flooding from our rivers. I am looking forward to chairing a panel of leading figures to discuss those measures and the next steps needed to deliver these changes at scale.”
We hope to hear from Defra about how the Government’s new Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes can contribute to enhancing our rivers and streams to reduce the risk of flooding, and from practitioners presenting evidence on how flood water can be effectively stored within the landscape and conveyed by our rivers.
Summit Speakers
We are very pleased that Sam Burford from Defra’s Landscape Recovery Team will be presenting about the importance of the connection between our landscapes, the environment and water management supported by Richard Barnes from the Local Nature Recovery Team.
From the Environment Agency the Summit will be joined by Caroline Douglass and Ian Hodge. Caroline is the Executive Director for Flood and Coastal Risk Management for the Environment Agency (EA). She joined the Agency in 2013 and has a varied background in both policy and operational roles. Before joining EA, Caroline worked with the State Government in Victoria, Australia. This involved a range of senior land, catchment and natural resource management positions. Ian is the Environment Agency’s (EA) Chief Engineer and Director of Asset Management and Engineering. He is a Chartered Civil Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
Richard Bramley, who chairs the National Farmers’ Union’s Environment Forum, will reflect on his own experiences of flooding on his farm not far from Selby in North Yorkshire and the role agriculture can play through natural flood management measures and flood storage in some areas, where there is recognition for the public goods delivered.
Ian Warsap, Chief Executive of Black Sluice Internal Drainage Board near Boston, Lincolnshire will describe the IDB’s experiences with environmentally friendly and cost effective lowland river maintenance by using cutting and suction silt removal to settlement lagoons and within their upper catchment through natural flood management attenuation measures.
Jo Knight will be speaking on behalf of the CLA, supported by Alice Green. Jo works with Dyson Farming Ltd as their Estate Surveyor with specific interests in managing carbon and enhancing natural capital. Alice Green will be supporting Jo as the CLA’s Policy Advisor on Climate and Water.
In addition, attendees joining this event can look forward to:

Presentations from practitioners presenting examples and evidence on how flood water can be effectively stored within the landscape and conveyed by our rivers
Information-rich discussions and the opportunity to participate in an engaging Q&A session with the panel of senior representatives from ADA, CLA, EA and NFU
Stakeholders and key policy officials addressing the challenges and providing positive next steps towards solutions
Networking opportunities over lunch, with a broad spectrum of attendees from across the sector

Booking Information
This face to face event is open to both members and non-members, with places available at a delegate rate of £25 inclusive of VAT.
Please visit the Keeping Our Rivers Flowing Summit 2022 Eventbrite page to book your place.
Keeping Our Rivers Flowing Summit 2022 Eventbrite page
The ADA website will be kept up-to-date with information on the event, so pop back for the latest updates.

Education Ambassadors' Training
2022-04-28 15:00 - 16:00 | Peterbrough
ADA brings flood risk management into focus in schools with the launch of education resources produced in collaboration with LEAF Education.
ADA members and teachers are invited to join this online Education Ambassador Training Event taking place on Thursday 28 April, 15:00-16:00 to familiarise themselves with the newly launched education resources that support the geography curriculum for Key Stage 4 & 5.
Register Here
