As part of Bath & North East Somerset Council’s plans to focus housing development on brownfield land to protect green belt land and create a modern business location in the Bath City Riverside Enterprise Zone, robust measures are required to ease flood risks on development sites.
The Council has worked in partnership with the Environment Agency to investigate options for the provision of compensatory storage upstream of Bath which will improve the capacity of the flood plain. This would be in addition to on-site flood defences. This study has revealed a technically feasible option with three sites identified for further consideration at Kensington Meadows, Batheaston, and Bathampton.
Councillor Tim Ball (Lib-Dem, Twerton), Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning, said, “There are very clear plans for the area’s future prosperity that Bath & North East Somerset Council wishes to progress, such as the creation of 2,000 jobs and further 3,500 homes as part of the ‘City of Ideas’ Bath City Riverside Enterprise Zone. We must also take steps to ensure that our intention to protect greenbelt land is realised. The compensatory storage facility will help us achieve these aims.
“The storage facility will be rural in character and blended in within the existing countryside that will benefit the local community and wildlife. For example, a similar scheme exists in Taunton which has provided new public green space. The compensatory storage facility is not a reservoir and would only be required as location for waters if there is a rare flooding event.”
There will be extensive consultation in order to identify the preferred site in 2012 which will include engagement with Parish Council’s, local residents, businesses, land owners, and others.
The Council has been requested by the Core Strategy examination inspector to provide the study as evidence that the Council’s approach to the Core Strategy is sounds. Therefore, in the interests of openness and transparency we have released this document on our website and to local ward/ parish councillors.
Find out more:
http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/environmentandplanning/planning/planningpolicy/localdevelopmentscheme/pages/default.aspx