Local authorities granted 16 major developments planning permission against Environment Agency (EA) advice on the grounds of flood risk during 2007/08, but the level of compliance was the highest yet.
Virtually all – 96% – planning applications where the Environment Agency objected were heeded by local authorities. However, 16 developments were approved against its advice – up from 13 in 2006/07 – including some 240 homes, a primary school, offices, apartments, a business park and a ferry terminal.
The EA lodged objections to 6,200 planning applications on the grounds of flood risk in 2007/2008, 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 it might not provide insurance to certain new developments in the flood plain, if the properties were granted planning approval against Environment Agency advice.
Nick Starling, the Association of British Insurer’s director of general insurance and health, said it was ‘worrying’ that the developments were given planning permission against Environment Agency advice, ‘despite tougher planning controls’.
Paul Leinster, chief executive of the agency, said: ‘We’re pleased that most councils take our flood risk advice in relation to planning decisions, but we are concerned that a minority of decisions go against our wishes.’ Among applications approved against EA advice was the erection of a three-storey ferry terminal building by Liverpool City Council, which has now accepted it made a mistake.
‘Unfortunately, our views were overlooked and not reported to the committee which approved the application without requesting a flood risk assessment,’ the agency said. The local planning authority is now ‘urgently trying to resolve the matter’, even though the development is under construction.
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