Flood Risk Assessment

A Flood Risk Assessment (FRA) will be required for development proposals of 1 hectare or greater in Flood Zone 1 and for all proposals for new development located in Flood Zones 2 and 3 as designated by the Environment Agency.

 

A FRA will also be required for any development other than minor development in a designated critical drainage area which has been notified to the Local Planning Authority by the Environment Agency.

 

The FRA should identify and assess the risks of all forms of flooding to and from the development and demonstrate how these flood risks will be managed, taking climate change into account. The FRA should identify opportunities to reduce the probability and consequences of flooding. The FRA should include the design of surface water management systems including Sustainable Drainage Systems (SUDs) and address the requirement for safe access to and from the development in areas at risk of flooding.

 

The FRA should be prepared by an applicant in consultation with the local planning authority with reference to their published local development documents and any Strategic Flood Risk Assessment. The FRA should form part of an Environmental Statement when one is required by the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999 as amended. Planning Policy Statement 25: Development and Flood Risk (December 2006) and its associated Practice Guide provide comprehensive guidance for both local planning authorities and applicants in relation to the undertaking of FRAs and the responsibilities for controlling development where it may be directly affected by flooding or affect flooding elsewhere.

 

A Flood Risk Assessment may be required if a development proposal is located within the Indicative Flood Plains in Sheffield, or for any development over one hectare in size, to show that the run off (surface water drainage) proposal will not add to flood risk downstream.

 

Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 25: Development and flood risk explains that local planning authorities are responsible for controlling development, principally in relation to location and amenity, both in the flood plain, where it may be directly affected by flooding or affect flooding elsewhere, and elsewhere in river catchments, where changes in run-off characteristics may increase flooding downstream.  Sumaray guidance on PPS 25 can be downloaded from the bottom of this page.

 

Those proposing particular developments are responsible for:

 

 

Guidance on how to undertake flood risk assessments (flood risk assessment notes 1 to 4) can be found within the Environment Agency's Standing Advice.

 

There is specific advice for applicants and agents, including when Sequential and Exceptional tests will be required.  A flowchart on Sequential and Exceptional tests can be downloaded from the bottom of this page.  The Environment Agency are a statutory consultee on planning applications and it is important for applicants to address the Environment Agency requirements to avoid delay in obtaining planning permission. 

 

The Environment Agency publishes its research into nationally identified flood risk areas on its web site.  To find out if a site might need assessing against these identified risks, go to Environment Agency Data Maps.  It is possible to go directly to a site if the full postcode or grid reference are known.  Otherwise it is necessary to type ‘Sheffield’ into the ‘Placename’ and use the zoom in and out tools, which are found above the map.  The Environment Agency has replaced its Indicative Flood Plain Maps with new, more accurate, flood maps.  On these maps the Flood Zones are intended for use as a planning constraint. 

 

The Environment Agency has developed Standing Advice, to enable local planning authorities in England to make decisions on low risk planning applications where flood risk is an issue, without directly consulting the Agency for an individual response.  It also identifies those higher risk development situations where case by case consultation with the Agency should continue.  Some applicants might find this Standing Advice useful in helping to identify in advance what measures might be requested of them.  Effective flood risk control includes measures to control the amount of run-off from significant developments, which can contribute to flooding problems downstream, and typical requirements for different sorts of development are included in the Standing Advice.

 

Sheffield’s Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (SFRA) was completed early in 2007. The SFRA collates all known sources of flooding in the city, and delineates areas that have ‘low’, ‘medium’, or ‘high’ risk of flooding. The SFRA contains a report on flood risk, and a series of maps covering the city.