Achieving sustainable development

Development of brownfield land and to a certain extent greenfield land is inevitable in Derby and as such is important that it is managed carefully to avoid putting residents at increased risk of flooding. We are both the Local Planning Authority (LPA) and the Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA), both of which have certain responsibilities and powers in the management of flood risk from new development in the city.

Local Planning Authority (LPA)

We are the LPA for Derby meaning that we make decisions to approve or reject planning applications submitted for the city. As the Local Planning Authority, we also have a duty to:

• Produce a local Core Strategy which sets out how the Council will deliver new housing and employment in the medium term and sets out policies on a range of subjects such as flooding and climate change.
• Produce a Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (SFRA) to assess the existing risk of flooding to Derby from all sources.

Lead Local Flood Authority

The content below refers to the duties of the LLFA with regards development. For more general LLFA roles and definitions please refer to the Lead Local Flood Authority page.

The Council had been expecting to become a Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) Approving Body (SAB) which would have placed responsibility on the Council for the approval, adoption, and maintenance of SuDS on new developments. However, implementation of this legislation was delayed and is now unlikely to come forward.

However, as of the 15th April 2015, as part of our role as a LLFA, we became a statutory consultee for major development applications in relation to surface water drainage. In considering planning applications for major developments, the LPA needs to consult the LLFA as regards the management of surface water. Our planning officers consult our internal drainage engineers for this purpose.

When consulted internally, drainage engineers will provide technical advice on surface water drainage proposals put forward for new major developments.

Planning policies published in the City of Derby Adopted Local Plan, national Planning Practice Guidance (PPG), and the recently published Non-statutory technical standards for SuDS (March 2015) are used as the basis to form the advice given in response to internal planning consultations.

In many cases, especially where development proposals are within an area deemed as of high risk of flooding in the SFRA, the planning officers will also consult on minor development applications in relation to flood risk.

We are also currently working to produce more detailed SuDS Design and Adoption Guidance that we will seek to publish on our website in 2016. General guidance for SuDS adoption in Derby is given on the Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) adoption page.

For further information on what SuDS are and for further sources of information on implementing SuDS on new developments, please see the SuDS page.