Gaining planning permission for a householder extension in the flood plain

SF Planning were delighted to recently secure planning permission in a flood plain for a two-storey rear extension on a residential property in Longlevens, Gloucester.

Our clients were advised by officers at Gloucester City Council to withdraw their planning application. They were asked to produce a flood risk assessment (FRA) and additional hydraulic modelling. This was to challenge the Environment Agency’s Flood Map, with the property shown to fall within Flood Zone 3b. This additional work was prohibitively expensive and with unknown results. The owner of the property approached SF Planning for our advice and an alternative way forward.

SF Planning subsequently devised, and successfully implemented, the following two-staged planning strategy:

• Firstly, to establish a fallback position. This was through a certificate to prove that it was lawful to use Permitted Development rights for a single-storey rear extension at 4m deep;
• Secondly, to follow up with a householder planning application for a two-storey rear extension. This application used the certificate to demonstrate that, in the alternative, the applicant will exercise their Permitted Development rights to create a single-storey extension with the same footprint as the two-storey extension. This application posed no perceptible difference in flood risk. The two-storey extension also included some suggested flood resilience measures, which would otherwise not be provided in the Permitted Development extension.

The Council duly accepted our “logical approach”. Planning permission was granted without delay and within the statutory eight week determination period.

Our client was understandably delighted with the approval:

“Wow, thanks that’s great news! Wasn’t expecting them to make a decision so quickly!”

This example illustrates that even for relatively small applications, our experience and advice can be critical in securing planning permission, while saving our clients unnecessary costs and time delays.

For more information on this project please contact Chris Wilkinson.

For assistance on any planning project, large or small, please get in touch:

e: info@sfplanning.co.uk

t: Cheltenham: 01242 231575 | Gloucester: 01452 527997 | London – 020 3763 8005

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