The Planning System and Flood Risk Management: Guidelines for Planning Authorities

1. Page 81

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   Why is land-raising not an easy option? Even in a defended floodplain, land-raising may reduce the potential amount of flood storage or affect a flood-flow route, with consequent effects on flood risk elsewhere. During a flood event that can be contained by the defences, land-raising behind those defences may have little or no impact. However, should overtopping or a breach occur (or the defences be by-passed by flood waters), land-raising could adversely affect the surrounding low-lying areas by causing areas to flood that would not have flooded previously due to loss of floodplain storage. The beneficial effects of land-raising should therefore be balanced against potential increased flood risk elsewhere. New development should be planned in such a way that residual flood risk is equitably shared by new development and maintained or reduced for existing developments. Can I make a planning application if my site is in an area of flood risk? Yes. However, development management aims to ensure that planning permission is granted or refused in line with the provisions of the spatial plan that covers the area of the application (the development plan or local area plan). In drawing up these plans, planning authorities should take flood risk into account in accordance with the sequential approach and zone land for development that is at low risk of flooding or that can satisfy the Justification Test if no low-risk land is reasonably available that would meet the objectives of proper planning and sustainable development. An applicant for planning permission for development that is not in line with the spatial plan would need to satisfy the planning authority and/or An Bord Pleanála that there are no reasonably available alternative sites at low risk of flooding, that the development can be justified on the grounds of proper planning and sustainable development and that the development would not be subject to unacceptable risks of flooding or increase flood risk elsewhere (Parts 1 and 2 of the Justification Test). Who can tell me if my land is at risk of flooding or where can I go to get this information? A list of potential sources of information relevant to flooding is provided in Fig. A2 and Table A4 of Appendix A. 73 Guidelines for Planning Authorities The Planning System and Flood Risk Management

Source Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the Office of Public Works: The Planning System and Flood Risk Management: Guidelines for Planning Authorities (November 2009) · Licence the publisher's termsText read from the publisher’s PDF; tables, maps and drawings do not survive as text, and page numbers are the PDF’s (its first page is 1). Check the original before relying on a passage.