Download - GRaBS

Left
London Borough of Sutton’s assessment
of flood risk from the River Wandle
The most significant future potential impacts from
river (fluvial) flooding within the Borough are from
the River Wandle, a tributary of the Thames, which
affects a large part of the Borough to the north east,
including the preferred redevelopment opportunities
within the proposed Hackbridge sustainable suburb
and proposals for a new district shopping centre.
Hackbridge is also affected by significant risks of
surface water flooding, with many locations
experiencing problems during the severe storm
event of July 2007.
The draft LDF Core Policies very much reflected
national policy, set out in Planning Policy Statement:
Planning and Climate Change. Supplement to
Planning Policy Statement 1 (2007), and the Mayor’s
Replacement London Plan of 2008, and were not
seriously challenged at the Examination into the
Core Strategy in June 2009. Equally, based on the
recommendations of the joint Strategic Flood Risk
Assessment (SFRA) for the River Wandle catchment
undertaken with the London Boroughs of
Wandsworth, Croydon and Merton in 2008, the
Council was able to agree its broad policy approach
on flood risk with the Environment Agency.
The benefits of the Council’s ongoing involvement
in the GRaBS project became much more apparent in
the preparation of Sutton’s detailed ‘Site Allocations
and Development Management’ DPD, which followed
on from and supported the adopted Core Strategy.
The Proposed Submission document, approved
for consultation in January 2010, included a discrete
policy on climate change adaptation, which integrated
the core principles of the GRaBS project by seeking
to ensure that the location, layout and design of all
developments promote effective adaptation to the
future impacts of climate change by:
● ‘maximising the role of green infrastructure,
including open spaces, parks, wildlife corridors,
tree planting, communal and private gardens and
green roofs/walls as part of wider green space
networks (‘green grid’), in urban cooling and in
achieving a range of additional benefits for flood
storage/SUDS, environmental enhancement, local
amenity, recreation, biodiversity and habitats and
sustainable transport’; and
● ‘maximising the role of blue infrastructure,
including river corridors, natural floodplains, ponds
and other water features in urban cooling and
achieving a number of additional benefits for flood
storage/SUDS, environmental enhancement, local
amenity, recreation and biodiversity and habitats’.
The formulation of this policy and its refinement
in the Submission document for purposes of the
Examination in Public later in 2011 owes a great deal
to work undertaken in relation to two of the main
outputs from the GRaBS project.
First, the online climate change risk and
vulnerability ‘Assessment Tool’, developed in
collaboration with the University of Manchester
using spatial data on a wide range of climate
impacts affecting Sutton, helped the Council to
acquire a thorough understanding of the specific
problems and opportunities which needed to be
addressed in different parts of the Borough. The
Council also recognised the Assessment Tool’s
significant potential as a vehicle for community
engagement and awareness-raising on climate
change impacts.
Secondly, the blue and green space adaptation
principles underlying this policy have largely been
shaped by the emerging Adaptation Action Plan
(AAP) for Sutton.
In addition – and equally important – partner
meetings, mentoring visits and work undertaken by
the other GRaBS partners in the course of the
Town & Country Planning June 2011 : GRaBS Project – INTERREG IVC; ERDF-funded 283