Planning and Sustainable Drainage

Pre-application planning advice from the LLFA

Warwickshire County Council (WCC) are a Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA) and since 2015 have been a Statutory Consultee in the Town and Country Planning process for surface water on major developments.

We are trialling a pre-application service which offers developers tailored LLFA advice on their development proposals. It is aimed at developers in the early stages of their development proposals and is a chargeable service calculated on the size of development and level of pre-app required.

This can include;

  • a tailored summary report of LLFA records and mapping
  • a meeting with informal written LLFA advice
  • a site visit

By engaging with us early in the design of a development, we can work with applicants to identify key flood risk and drainage issues that could otherwise arise during the planning process. This can clearly benefit applicants who are looking to reduce time spent revisiting flood risk and drainage details at the planning stage.

The LLFA pre-application service is separate from any other pre-app offerings from other statutory consultees or stakeholders such as the local planning authority (LPA), other WCC teams or water and sewerage company.

Contact us via frmplanning@warwickshire.gov.uk if you would like further details on the pre-application service offered by the LLFA.

Please note, any advice given by LLFA officers for pre-application enquiries does not and cannot bind the County Council to any particular course of action or any formal decision by the local planning authority (LPA). Any views or opinions are given without prejudice to the formal consideration of any planning application.

Officers are unable to design or produce Flood Risk Assessments or Drainage Strategies on behalf of developers.

Local guidance for developers

Our Flooding and Sustainable Drainage: Local Guidance for Developers (PDF, 603 KB) document outlines the level of information required in Flood Risk Assessments and Drainage Strategies submitted for major planning applications in Warwickshire.

Historical flood risk information

Our historical flooding map shows the flood records held by the Flood Risk Management team. These records may not be entirely accurate or complete and are only a representation of the records we hold.

Strategic plans

A Surface Water Management Plan (SWMP) and Local Flood Risk Management Strategy (LFRMS) have been completed for Warwickshire in line with our duties as a LLFA. These contain detailed information on historic flooding, planning matters and wider flooding issues in Warwickshire.

There is also a Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (SFRA) for Warwickshire which contains details of historic flooding records and other flood risk information relevant to planning applications.

If the above documents do not hold details of flooding in the vicinity of the site, this does not necessarily indicate that there have not been any historic flood events in the area. As such, we suggest that you carry out further consultation to fully inform any flood risk assessment (FRA). The relevant district or borough council may hold more detailed information, as may the parish council or residents around the proposed development area. Results of further consultation should be included within your FRA, any issues raised should be considered within the development proposals.

Other sources of information

Additional information on flood risks is also available from other bodies. The Environment Agency holds information on historic flooding as well as flooding from surface water, rivers, the sea and reservoirs which is freely available.

Our role at planning application stage

As statutory consultees on major planning applications, the LLFA will review the FRA, Drainage Strategy and any related planning documents.

The LLFA will give a positive formal recommendation to the LPA where the planning submission complies with WCC LLFA Guidance (PDF, 603 KB), the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the planning practice guidance (PPG), District or Borough Council Local Plans and industry best practice.