Flood defence plans to protect the £400 million Kirkstall Forge development have been resubmitted by developer.
The move comes a month after parts of the site were submerged when the River Aire broke its banks in the Kirkstall area during the Boxing Day floods.
Developer CEG’s plans for Kirkstall Forge include 1,050 new homes, 300,000 sq ft of offices and 100,000 sq ft of retail, leisure and community space. They are resubmitting existing proposals for a flood relief channel in the event of a one in 100 year flood.
Their original flood plans were approved by the Environment Agency in 2008 but, because of delays in building the scheme due to the economic downturn, planning consent for the flood defences lapsed in 2011. As one of the conditions for planning approval, CEG are having to resubmit their original proposals ahead of the site being occupied.
The floods channel will be a minimum of 25 metres wide.
Details of the proposals can be found here:
Kirkstall Forge Flood Defence Background Papers
Jon Kenny, director of developer CEG, said at the time of the floods: “There has been some flooding on the areas of the site where we expect it and our scheme has been designed to account for this, in full accordance with Environment Agency requirements; this does not therefore affect the development of the wider site.”
Kirkstall Forge is being marketed as the most ambitious project of its type in the North of England. The new Kirkstall Forge Station, which was unaffected by the flooding, is due to open before Easter.
There were concerns expressed at the post flood public meeting that the runoff from the Kirstall Forge development may have exacerbated flooding further downstream.
I have not studied this proposal in detail, but at first glance it appears designed only to protect the development without regard for everyone else…
Good point. Presumably the resubmitted 2007 plans are open for public comments and will be debated at a public planning meeting before they’re approved. And that planning decision will presumably have to take into account any evidence of exacerbated flooding caused by run-off from the Forge. Any idea if that’s the case, John/Dan?
While the proposals have been advertised to the public (follow the link in this article), the plans aren’t open for public comment and are due to be decided by council officers under delegated powers. This is, I believe, because it isn’t a full planning application, it’s the meeting of a condition connected to an existing planning approval (the new office block on the site, approved last year). It’s a good point (and one I hadn’t considered) that obviously issues with flooding have escalated since that was granted permission – I don’t have the answer to this, but would plans panel be able to insist on it coming back before councillors given they’ve previously decided it’s a delegated decision?
Maybe an email to the panel asking them how they intend to proceed and how they’re going to assess the impact at Xmas of the Forge run-off on the wider area?
No, they appear not to be; on this site one has to pay?
https://www.scribd.com/doc/297196793/Kirkstall-Forge-Flood-Defence-Background-Papers
Why?
In the plans the calculations were done with 361m^3/s;
this may (or may not) be lower than the discharge at Boxing Day 2015 Flood. I would like to see the actual calculations and the data used to assess thus.