Hundreds of homes planned within flood risk zones in Sheffield

Nearly 500 homes could be built in high-risk flood zones within the city, where there is at least a one in 100 chance of flooding in any year, research by the charity has revealed.

And 1,200 could go up in medium-risk flood zones, where there is a one in 1,000 chance or greater.

The figures were released today as flooding continues to wreak havoc in South Yorkshire, especially in Doncaster, where Greenpeace’s investigation also found thousands of homes are planned in flood risk zones.

The developments in question are included in Sheffield Council’s latest Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment, which sets out where new homes could be built across the city between 2018 and 2023 to meet the demand for housing.

It includes a mixture of homes which have been completed, homes for which planning permission have granted and sites which have been identified as suitable for housing.

The figures highlighted by Unearthed, Greenpeace’s journalism project, showed that across 10 flood-prone local authorities including Sheffield and Doncaster nearly 10,000 homes are planned in areas identified by the Environment Agency as being at high risk of inundation.

Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist, Dr Doug Parr, claimed the figures showed local authorities are ‘literally planning for disaster’, with the risk only likely to rise due to the climate crisis threatening our planet.

“Flooding has been flashing on the radar as one of the major impacts of the climate emergency in the UK for years, yet our planning system keeps failing to properly recognise it,” he said.

“Planning for thousands of new homes to be built in areas at high risk of flooding is literally planning for disaster. And disaster is only going to become more and more likely as the climate crisis loads the dice in favour of more and more floods.

“One of the problems is that by cutting the budgets of both local authorities and the Environment Agency, the Government has effectively tilted the playing field in favour of developers. We have a housing policy that tends to put house builders' profits before people's chances of not seeing their homes underwater.

“It’s high time both local and central government started treating the climate emergency as if it was real - because it is. This also means rethinking where and how we build homes, giving more powers to environmental watchdogs to keep developers in check, and investing more in preventing floods from happening.”

When a developer wishes to build on a floodplain, the Environment Agency is invited to examine the planning application and can object or ask for conditions to be imposed.

But local authorities are not obliged to follow its recommendations and while the Environment Agency said 96 per cent of decisions taken were in line with its advice, Greenpeace found this was only true for those developments where councils informed the organisation of the outcome, which did not happen in nearly a third of cases.

James Porter, a flooding expert at Kings College London, told Unearthed: “It should be a real concern to all of us that we still do not know – with full confidence – if new developments will be safe from flooding, or if the safety of existing communities will be compromised by ill-advised developments.

“If we are to avoid areas thought to be low risk becoming flooding hotspots, especially as climate change increases the frequency, severity and types of flooding we experience, a serious rethink of how we manage flood risk and how we hold key actors responsible is needed.”

Michael Johnson, Sheffield Council’s service manager for development management, said: “When planning new homes for our residents, Sheffield City Council always assesses the risk of flooding with informed consideration. The schemes listed have been granted in accordance with advice from the Environment Agency. In some cases the developer has been required to provide or contribute to the cost of flood defence measures, following EA advice.

“All the sites in Sheffield identified by Greenpeace as being in flood risk areas are brownfield sites within existing built-up areas. Most are in the city centre and are apartment schemes where the majority of homes are above ground floor level. Schemes are only granted permission where there is safe means of escape should the site be subject to flooding.”

Below is the full list of homes planned in high and medium-risk flood zones within Sheffield, according to Greenpeace’s findings.

HIGH-RISK FLOOD ZONES

Kelham House, 3 Lancaster Street, Neepsend - 14 homes (completed)

Victoria Station Road, near Spital Hill - 27 homes (identified site)

Sheaf Square, city centre - 65 homes (proposed allocation)

The Tramsheds, Leadmill Road, city centre - 24 homes (identified site)

Between Shoreham Street and Sidney Street, city centre - 117 homes (identified site)

Land and buildings at Sidney Street, Matilda Street, Arundel Street And Sylvester Street, city centre - 116 homes (planning permission)

Development at Bernard Works Site, Sylvester Gardens, city centre - 96 homes (under construction)

Royal Works, 60 Priestley Street, Highfield - 26 homes (planning permission)

TOTAL: 485

MEDIUM RISK FLOOD ZONES

Cannon Brewery - 13 homes

22 Stannington Road - 30 homes

Land Adjacent to 130 Owler Lane - 12 homes

Upwell Street - 41 homes

Land and Buildings at Kelham Riverside - 151 homes

Nursery Street - 57 homes

Nursery Lane - 100 homes

Stanley Street - 99 homes

Old Coroners Court Business Centre - 30 homes

Wicker - 81 homes

Sheaf Street - 60 homes

Cross Turner Street - 105 homes

W W Laycock Building - 138 homes

Land at 48 Suffolk Road - 48 homes

Matilda Tavern - 10 homes

St Mary's House - 12 homes

Yorkshire Co Op - 10 homes

Waitrose Supermarket - 25 homes

Land at Napier Street - 120 homes

Site of 45 Stalker Lees Road - 12 homes

Abbey Glen Laundry Co - 46 homes

TOTAL: 1,200