Assembly Government guidance on flood risk and development is too lax and needs an urgent rethink, Welsh Conservatives have claimed.
Speaking in the National Assembly yesterday, Shadow Environment Minister Angela Burns said the TAN 15 guidance gives “too much wriggle room” to planners when developing in areas of flood risk.
The AM for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire said she supported the Assembly’s Sustainability Committee’s view that TAN 15 does not go far enough and needs to be explicit in regard to not building on areas at flood risk except in exceptional circumstances.
Mrs Burns said the Assembly Government’s apparent reluctance to review the guidance is “unfathomable”.
She added:
“TAN 15 may be working in part but there are too many parts that are not working.
“It is time to conduct an appraisal of TAN 15 which is too lax in some instances, is not protecting the flood risk areas as it should, and gives too much wriggle room to applicants and planners.
“TAN 15 is incredibly important to the planning process because one in six properties are deemed at risk of flooding and over 600,000 people are living or working in areas prone to flood risk.
“The Pitt Report called for ‘strong national leadership’ to protect homes, businesses and livelihoods from flooding. It’s about time we saw that from the Assembly Government.”
