North Somerset Council submit High Court appeal over flood zone
It's to overturn a planning decision which could open up flood zones for housing developers.
North Somerset Council has appealed to the High Court to overturn a planning decision which could open up flood zones for housing developers.
Developer Persimmon won planning permission on appeal in March to build 190 homes on fields by Yatton which lie in flood zone 3a — the highest level of flood risk before land is considered the “functional flood plain.” It is a decision “blows a hole” in the council’s attempts to avoid building in flood zones and could impact how decisions are made about developments in flood zones across the country.
Now North Somerset Council has appealed to the High Court to overturn the decision. A council spokesperson said: “The council was very disappointed that an inquiry ruled 190 homes can be built on a North Somerset flood zone in Yatton, which could have an effect on how we deal with planning applications in flood zones going forward, our local plan and be of national significance to other local authorities.
“After reviewing legal options, we have made an application to the courts for permission for statutory review of the inspector’s decision under Section 288(1) of the Town and Country Planning Act. We are currently awaiting an outcome of this review.”
The local plan is a hugely important document produced by the council setting out its planning policies and where major developments over the next 20 years should be built. The council has repeatedly delayed submitting its plan to the government for approval due to the government repeatedly changing the council’s housing target.
Most recently, the target was massively increased and made mandatory by the new Labour government to 23,895 new homes by 2040 — 1,593 homes a year — although it might not have enough builders to build them all. With large parts of the district either falling within the green belt, Mendip Hills National Landscape, or in flood zones, the council is looking at taking areas out of the green belt to build thousands of homes as an extension of Bristol.
But Yatton’s local councillor on North Somerset, Steve Bridger (Independent), warned in March that the planning inspector’s decision “blows a hole in the spatial strategy that underpins the council’s emerging new local plan,” which avoided including sites in flood zones as areas for new developments. In his decision, planning inspector David Prentis said: “It will be necessary to allocate some sites that are at risk of flooding to meet the housing needs of the district.”
Persimmon had appealed to the planning inspectorate after North Somerset Council failed to decide the planning application before the deadline. The council told the inquiry over the plans that it would have turned down the plans over flooding concerns and the size of the development.
The fields at Yatton Batch on the west side of the village are just five metres above sea level. Persimmon plans to raise the land on which the houses are built to prevent them flooding. Half of the homes would be affordable housing, and 70% of the site would remain open space with orchards, children’s play, and biodiversity improvements. Mr Prentis said: “I have found that the wider sustainability benefits outweigh the flood risk.”
Mr Prentis said that, in a theoretical one-in-200-year-flood event, the planned homes would not increase flood risk or neighbours of flood themselves — but in a scenario where future high tides breach the sea defences and flood the North Somerset levels, modelling suggests it would take 42 hours for the water to reach the site on the edge of Yatton. Mr Prentis said: “Future residents would not be taken by surprise.”
Lord Charlie Banner KC — who sits as a Tory peer in the House of Lords — had represented Permission at the inquiry, which sat sporadically between September and January. His chambers Keating Chambers hailed the decision in March as “hugely important” and said: “This decision will be of immense interest to the planning and development sector.”