Flood risk sequential test
When is one required?
Applications proposing development in areas known to be at risk of any form of flooding unless it is:
- An application for a change of use (unless relating to caravans/park homes or similar)
- An allocated site in the Development Plan.
- A householder application.
- An application for a small non-residential extension (i.e. with a footprint of less than 250m2).
- A situation where a site-specific flood risk assessment demonstrates that no development, escape routes, land raising, or other potentially vulnerable elements are in areas of the site identified at risk from any form of flooding, now and in the future.
What must it include?
The purpose of the sequential test is to demonstrate that there are no alternative sites available for the proposed development in lower flood risk zones (taking into account wider sustainable development objectives); depending on flood risk vulnerability, the assessment will need to demonstrate this. If your development is located within an area of high or medium risk, you will need to demonstrate, through a site search, that there no reasonably available sites in a medium or low risk lower risk areas. If your site is within medium risk area you will need to demonstrate that there are no reasonably available sites in a low risk area.
For the purposes of the sequential test, the area of search is limited to the administrative boundary of Cheltenham Borough. The submission must provide us with the information we require to assess the application against Policy INF2 (Flood Risk Management) of the Joint Core Strategy