Doncaster housing plan will not be looked at again following last month's devastating floods

Scott Cardwell, assistant director of development at DMBC, told councillors at a recent scrutiny meeting that the Local Plan housing sites were not placed in the highest flood risk area - Flood Zone 3.

The Local Plan is a document which guides Doncaster’s future development and aims to build 18,000 homes over the next 20 years.

But Mr Cardwell did say that housing sites which were in the development process previously approved in Flood Zone 3 did have mitigation factors in place under the advice of the Environment Agency (EA).

He also added the guidance taken to form the local plan was ‘really reliant’ on flood zones which are drawn up from the EA.

“In the plan, we have not allocated any new sites in Flood Zone 3 for that very reason because we’ve used the modelling from the EA.

“The Local Plan might take account of planning applications which have been granted with some of the areas in Flood Zone 3. We’ve consulted with the EA and they will have had to have come back to tell us we need to implement conditions,” Mr Cardwell said.

Thorne & Moorends councillor Mark Houlbrook asked if the council were going to re-look at the Local Plan following the flooding which hit many parts of Doncaster along the River Don.

Coun Houlbrook asked: “Flooding from what we’ve seen recently is going to have an impact on the delivery of housing and some areas which perhaps weren’t identified as a risk which were hit.

“How does this affect the Local Plan today? Because from the flooding, it’s clearly identified that we can’t just build anywhere.”

On the issue if the local plan should be looked at again, Mr Cardwell added: “We’ve got the most up to date information from the EA as the map we use to allocate housing.

“We have to create a housing delivery need and targets and this is something we can get challenged on if we haven’t got an appropriate figure.”