To approve the Flood and Water Management Supplementary Planning Document for consultation purposes; and to delegate authority to the Head of Development Services to make any necessary minor amendments to the draft document as appropriate.

1.      That, subject to 2 and 3 below, the Flood and Water Management Supplementary Planning Document, as set out in Appendix 1 and 1a, be APPROVED for the purposes of public consultation.

2.      That the draft document be circulated to the Flood Risk Management Group for consultation with any comments being forwarded to the Head of Development Services by Friday 8 September 2017.

3.      That authority be delegated to the Head of Development Services, in consultation with the Chair of the Flood Risk Management Group, to make any necessary amendments to the draft document as considered appropriate prior to its publication for consultation.  

38.1           The report of the Head of Development Services, circulated at Pages No. 121-264, attached a draft Flood and Water Management Supplementary Planning Document which Members were asked to approve for the purposes of consultation. In addition, the Committee was asked to delegate authority to the Head of Development Services to make any necessary minor amendments as considered appropriate prior to its publication for consultation.

38.2           Members were advised that in November 2014, the Council had approved the adoption of a Flood and Water Management Supplementary Planning Document; however, since that time there had been significant updates to national guidance surrounding flood and water management and a review of the Council’s document had been undertaken. The revised Supplementary Planning Document was attached to the report at Appendix 1. The updated document aimed to provide more in-depth guidance and achieve a higher standard of water and flood risk management than the Council currently had. It provided an update on legislative and policy background primarily around the National Planning Policy Framework and National Planning Policy Guidance which, most notably, included changing guidance around the approach to climate change. A key change to the revised Supplementary Planning Document was a requirement for all major development to provide a detailed flood risk assessment which included a 70% allowance added to peak river flows to account for climate change. That approach was also recommended for non-major development where possible and provided a precautionary approach to assessing flood risk on potential development sites. The draft document also proposed comprehensive guidance on the application of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) and guidelines on topics such as SuDS design principles, place-making, surface water management, water reuse and maintenance.

38.3           Members were advised that, if approved, the draft Supplementary Planning Document would be published for a six week consultation period in September and October 2017. Following that period, a consultation response report would be produced and any appropriate amendments made – it was envisaged that the final document would be reported to the Executive Committee and Council later in 2017.

38.4           During the discussion which ensued, a Member indicated that, as Chair of the Council’s Flood Risk Management Group, she had pushed for the document to be revised and updated however she was concerned that the draft had not been considered by the Flood Risk Management Group prior to being submitted to the Executive Committee. She fully understood the urgency for the Council to approve the document as soon as possible and as such it needed to be approved for consultation so she did not want its progress to be held up. In addition, she was of the view that, whilst it was a strong document, she had noted a number of typographical errors which would need to be addressed prior to it being released for consultation. Another Member expressed a similar view, that large parts of the document worked well but that he would like to feed into it prior to the consultation – particularly as a number of key concerns had been expressed by members of the public during the Joint Core Strategy inquiry and he wanted to ensure those had been taken into account. Members felt the matter was urgent and they did not want to see the document delayed; however, they were also of the view that the Flood Risk Management Group should be consulted. It was suggested that a colour version of the document be sent, electronically and in hard copy format, to that Group for their comments to come back to the Head of Development Services by Friday 8 September 2017 with a caveat that, should no comments be received, it would be assumed they were happy for the consultation to take place. It was also suggested that any amendments made to the document prior to consultation be made by the Head of Development Services in consultation with the Chair of the Flood Risk Management Group. One Member was not happy that the document had not been considered by the Flood Risk Management Group at its meeting and asked that her view be recorded.

38.5           Accordingly, it was