1. How many homes it has allocated as part of its local plan to be built in medium and high-risk flood-zones?

The information relates to the council’s latest local plan. However, if the council’s local plan is out of date then please supply the number of homes that are currently allocated in its draft, examination or final adoption form clarifying this detail. A high-risk flood zone is designated by the Environment Agency (EA) as a flood zone 3 whilst a medium flood-risk zone is designated as a flood zone 2. However, the local planning authority should provide this information based on its own designation of flood zone 3a or 3b.

The council considers that the policies contained in the existing Local Plan: Core Strategy (2010)*1 and Managing Development Delivery (2014)*2 are not out of date. The existing Strategic Development Locations and site allocations are identified on the Council’s online planning policy proposals map.*3

Notwithstanding, the Council is currently working on an emerging local plan which will guide where and how growth will take place in the borough in the years up to 2037/38. We are currently consulting on a Revised Growth Strategy*4 for the local plan, which includes the proposed allocations for housing across the borough. You can view the proposed site allocations and other policy designations on our interactive map.*5

We have considered where proposed housing site allocations fall wholly or partially within areas of high flood risk. The Council has undertaken a comprehensive approach to site selection informed by technical evidence (including Strategic Flood Risk Assessment*6 ) and consultation with key stakeholders and infrastructure providers. The Revised Growth Strategy is supported by development guidelines (see Appendix J of the Revised Growth Strategy consultation document) which set out some key requirements and principles for each site allocation, e.g. ‘development should avoid areas of high flood risk’.

The Revised Growth Strategy identifies two housing site allocations that fall wholly within Flood Zone 2; however any potential risks are capable of being mitigated and indicative site capacities can be achieved (see attached document). No housing site allocations proposed in the Revised Growth Strategy fall wholly within Flood Zone 3.

*1 Wokingham Borough Core Strategy (adopted January 2010), available at: https://www.wokingham.gov.uk/planning-policy/planning-policy-information/local-plan-and-planning-policies/
*2 Wokingham Borough Managing Development Delivery Document Local Plan (adopted February 2014), available at: https://www.wokingham.gov.uk/planning-policy/planning-policy-information/local-plan-and-planning-policies/
*3 http://www.planvu.co.uk/wbc/; https://wokingham.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=4108644c82ca42a99eb395687ac134ca
*4 Wokingham Borough Local Plan Update: Revised Growth Strategy Consultation (November 2021), available at: https://www.wokingham.gov.uk/planning-policy/planning-policy-information/revised-growth-strategy-consultation/?categoryesctl91f252ff-550d-4cfa-a838-92ef2cb5f83c=10780
*5 https://wokingham.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=4108644c82ca42a99eb395687ac134ca
*6 https://www.wokingham.gov.uk/planning-policy/planning-policy-information/draft-local-plan-consultation/?categoryesctl91f252ff-550d-4cfa-a838-92ef2cb5f83c=10724

2. I would prefer to receive this information electronically, preferably as a data set in Excel and not as a PDF, to include the following information:
a) The name of the local plan e.g. Wirral's Local Plan 2020 to 2035
b) The number of homes allocated for flood zone 2 area e.g. 5,500 homes in a flood risk 2 area.
c) The number of homes allocated to be built in a flood zone 3a and 3b e.g. 3,000 homes in flood risk zone 3a and 500 homes in zone 3b
d) Details of any planned infrastructure flood defences that accompany the local plan e.g. a new hard wall to be installed along the river X, reducing X many homes from a high risk to medium risk.
See attached file.