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Warwick Local Plan

Proposed Modifications

Thank you for consulting the Environment Agency in relation to Proposed modifications to the Local Plan published in February 2016.

We have carefully reviewed the modifications proposed within the document based on the Planning Inspectors Interim Report and we find the it meets the tests of soundness:

We agree that the plan is positively prepared, justified, effective and consistent with national policy with the proposed modifications.

We have the following comments to make:

Modification 15
We support the wording of the proposed modification.

Modification 21 - Section 1.8
The Finham Brook, a designated Main River flows through the King's Hill site H43 near the southern boundary. We would support proposals to create land for open space and this should be linked in to the provision of green and blue infrastructure. Every opportunity should be taken to create additional flood storage to reduce the risk of flooding elsewhere.

Ammendments to Policy DS11 Paragraph 2.4.1
We note that sites were assessed for their suitability against the SFRA Level 1. Warwick District Council's SFRA is dated April 2013 and we recommend that it is updated to take into account changes in Policy (NPPF) and the revised climate change allowances. The Environment Agency updated their guidance on how climate change could affect flood risk to new developments - 'Flood risk assessments: climate change allowances' published on gov.uk on 19th February and came into immediate effect.

The update is based new scientific evidence. The main changes are to the peak river flow allowances. We are currently preparing new guidance which can be appended to the SFRA before the examination of the Local Plan is resumed.