Planning row erupts in Parliament (Cheltenham Liberal Democrats)

Cheltenham Liberal Democrats <info@cheltlibdems.org.uk>

Planning row erupts in Parliament

January 12, 2010 2:24 PM

Three local MPs have joined in a heated debate in Parliament over local authorities' powers to refuse planning permission to developments in high flood risk areas. Cheltenham Liberal Democrat Martin Horwood, Tewkesbury Tory MP Laurence Robertson and Labour MP for Stroud, David Drew, are all speaking in the committee stage of the government's Floods Bill today.

Among a series of amendments tabled as Lib Dem national spokesman on flooding, Martin has called for two new clauses in the bill to give teeth to Sir Michael Pitt's recommendation that 'there should be a presumption against building in high flood risk areas' but attacked the current government planning guidance ('PPS25') as inadequate. Martin's first new clause calls for government rules to allow local authorities to define areas as high flood risk while the other allows those local authorities to refuse development in those high risk areas. Laurence Roberston's amendment uses his own definition of high flood risk. David Drew is also speaking during the debate in the bill's first day of detailed consideration 'in committee' today.

Martin quoted the example of Leckhampton and Warden Hill where more than a thousand new homes are planned in greenfield areas of Leckhampton immediately uphill of Warden Hill, where more than 40 properties flooded in 2007. said: 'This is the first really big issue that we have tackled in the detailed debate on the bill and it could make a real difference to peoples' lives. I know from what I have seen with my own eyes as a local resident and from the flood maps used in the recent flood defence work by Cheltenham Borough Council that the green fields of Leckhampton do flood. If you build on this area, the new houses will be at risk themselves and they will make the flood risk even worse in Warden Hill. Cheltenham Borough Council has won important funding for new flood defences in Warden Hill itself but development uphill could raise the risk all over again. Yet under the current rules, campaigners and councils alike struggle to stop development going ahead.'

The debate on the planning issue continues in the bill committee today but the new clauses will not be voted on until next week. There is a possibility of defeating the government if they do not concede the amendments, but only if Lib Dem and Tory MPs vote together and win support from Labour rebels.