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Planning permission granted despite flood warnings |
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9 Feb 2009, 5:14 PM
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Despite major flood problems in the UK in recent years, local planning authorities in England still granted planning permission for 16 major developments, including some 240 homes and a primary school in flood prone locations despite Environment Agency objections during 2007/08, according to a new report.
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Despite major flood problems in the UK in recent years, local planning authorities in England still granted planning permission for 16 major developments, including some 240 homes and a primary school in flood prone locations despite Environment Agency objections during 2007/08, according to a new report.
The Environment Agency’s annual ‘Development and Flood Risk’ report shows the performance of local planning authorities in England between April 2007 and March 2008 on planning applications where the Environment Agency provided advice on flood risk.
Virtually all (96 per cent) planning decisions where the Environment Agency objected were in line with its advice - the highest ever level of compliance. However, 16 developments were approved against Environment Agency advice - up from 13 in 2006/07 - including some 240 homes, a primary school, offices, apartments, a business park and a ferry terminal.
The Environment Agency lodged objections to 6,200 planning applications on the grounds of flood risk in 2007/2008, which was up from 4,750 in 2006/2007. A high proportion of these objections were removed after negotiation with developers and local authorities resulted in modified plans.
The insurance industry has already said that they may not provide insurance to certain new developments on flood plains if the properties were granted planning approval against Environment Agency advice.
Paul Leinster, Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, said: "There are already millions of people at risk from flooding and this number is set to rise in future due to the impacts of climate change. We helped reduce the risk of flooding to some 7,000 extra properties in England in the six months to September 2007. We're playing our part in managing the risk to properties and people, and local authorities have a crucial part to play by restricting development in flood plains.
"By working closely with planning authorities, we have continued to influence decisions and prevented developments which would have placed the occupants at a high risk of flooding. We're pleased that most councils take our flood risk advice in relation to planning decisions, but are concerned that a minority of decisions go against our advice."
Since 1 October 2006, the Environment Agency has been a statutory consultee on all planning applications (other than minor development) in areas where there is a risk of flooding, and local planning authorities must now consult the Environment Agency before making any decisions on new development. Since 1 January 2007, the new Flood Direction has allowed Government to call-in major applications where local planning authorities were minded to overrule Environment Agency advice on flood risk.
The release of the report coincides with the Environment Agency announcing how £700m of funding will be allocated to help reduce flood risk across England, up from £650m in 2008/2009. Some of the projects that will benefit from this funding include:
* £3.1m investment in the St Germans pumping station in Norfolk which, when completed, will protect over 20,000 residential properties and agricultural land valued at £3.6 billion;
*£4.7m investment in defence work along the River Thames at Deptford and Bermondsey in London, protecting an estimated 33,800 homes when complete;
*£3.4m investment to upgrade the Hull Tidal Surge Barrier, which protects 17,000 properties from flooding.
The High Level Target 5 (HLT5) report ‘Development and Flood Risk 2007/08 is available on the ’Environment Agencys website http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/research/planning/33704.aspx
Where the Environment Agency objected on flood risk grounds and where Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) advised the EA of the final outcome, 96.6 per cent of 3689 decisions were in line with Environment Agency advice
The number of major applications granted planning permission against Environment Agency advice rose slightly from 13 in 2006/07 to 16 last year. Of these, six cases relate to development in areas of the highest probability of river or coastal flooding (flood zone 3), two cases were in both flood zone 2 (medium probability) and flood zone 3, while eight were in flood zone 1 (low probability) where development may give rise to flooding elsewhere.
Many developers are still ignoring the requirement for flood risk assessments (FRAs) to accompany planning applications. The lack of a satisfactory FRA accounted for 67 per cent of all Environment Agency objections.
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| Positive review of this story |
richjenn13  |
18 Jul 2009, 12:32 PM |
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Why does no-one ever seem to suggest that, if we are building on flood plains, building houses on raised foundations (as in SO many other traditional cultures) - "stilts" - would mean that when floods come, despite disruption, damge to households could be virtually nil?
Am I missing something here?
Baffled
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