Comment
Draft Local Plan - Supplementary Consultation
Representation ID: 10323
Received: 02/05/2019
Respondent: Environment Agency
This site lies partially within Flood Zones 2 and 3. In light of this the Sequential Test should be undertaken to demonstrate there are no alternative sites available at a lower risk of flooding. A level 2 SFRA should be undertaken to support this allocation. The Mount Brook (Main River) is a tributary of the River Blythe which flows through Cheswick Green. There are known flooding problems through the village. The recent residential development at Mount Dairy Farm provided some flood storage, however further upstream storage is required to reduce the risk in Cheswick Green. We therefore recommend that an additional requirement 'to provide flood attenuation to reduce the risk of flooding in Cheswick Green' is added to the Plan. This area has known flooding issues and Solihull MBC as the LLFA are investigating potential options to reduce flood risk within Cheswick Green, as a result the LLFA should be allowed to comment further regarding this as any development in this location could provide flood storage and should help reduce flood risk downstream. We recommend that a Level 2 SFRA is undertaken to consider how development in this area could alleviate existing flood risk issues.
Thank you for referring the above consultation which we received on 30 January 2019. We apologise we have been unable to respond prior to now, and hope that you are still able to take our comments into account as the plan develops.
We have reviewed the above consultation document which is dated January 2019 and note the inclusion of additional sites for consideration for allocation.
We welcome the inclusion of Flood Risk as a potential 'Hard' issue in the site selection criteria as identified on page 18 and 19. We further recommend that Water Quality is added to the footnote in this section, with particular referenced to River Blythe's SSSI status. Further to this page 29 looks at what is required for the Blythe in the future and protection and enhancement of water quality should be included. Please see attached letter for our advice with regards to your site allocations, which incorporates comments previously provided, and adds additional comments in relation to your new sites. These comments should be used in preference to those previously provided as they have been updated