Flooding Issues Overcome at Avonmouth

Tetlow King Planning (TKP) has been successful in obtaining approval from Bristol City Council for a planning application for five 3-bedroom dwellings located in Portview Road, Avonmouth for their clients Helm Limited.  This followed on from a previous refusal of planning permission on flood and design issues which was the subject of a pending planning appeal. The planning appeal was withdrawn following the approval of a new application.

The Bush Consultancy, acting as project architects, were able to overcome the reason for refusal used in the original application through negotiation with the Council.

The site sits within the flood plain and the approval overcame sustained objections from the Environment Agency. These were withdrawn following further information and arguments put to them by TKP. The site did have an existing permission for six flats which could have been implemented but the Environment Agency still objected to the replacement proposal for five dwellings. These related to the lack of a dry escape route from the settlement and  no guarantee that flood defences would be improved.  While these objections were understood they made little sense when the site already had planning permission for residential development.  We were able to explain this to the Environment Agency and also provide further information on improvements over the scheme already approved in terms of flood issues. When this was combined with the pending appeal the Agency withdrew their objections and once the design issues were resolved Bristol City Council was able to approve the application.