With all the rain we've had this week it is hard to forget a project that I dealt with in 2014.
The site was a family home located on an island in the River Thames, near Windsor. Shortly after Christmas, in the early part of 2014, we had an unprecedented amount of rainfall, water tables were saturated and the rivers just couldn't cope. Water levels rose quickly overnight and the worst happened - the whole bungalow flooded devastating everything inside. Furniture was raised where possible, but there are only so many surfaces in a bungalow and many possessions were lost.
The water damage was so substantial that the property didn't dry out for many months and the owners were made homeless as a result and were forced to seek temporary accommodation.
With climate change, high water levels are not going to be isolated incidents and having a property within the functional flood plain, these events are highly likely to happen regularly.
Faced with the impossible situation of having an uninhabitable home, all options were explored, and with budget limitations, the only way forward for the owners was to look to raise the roof of the property and build a new floor level inside.
This seemingly simple solution had one big hindrance and that is that the property was located within the Green Belt making any enlargement extremely difficult to obtain consent for.
When extensions are considered in Green Belt locations, the % increase is considered against the original property. In this case, the original property has already been substantially extended. Therefore, a very delicate balancing argument was presented to the Council to justify the increase in bulk height and massing offset against the provision of new flood water storage capacity on site. This was to be created by allowing the ground floor of the property to flood by creating a number of voids where windows and doorways used to be and retaining them to remain open for perpetuity.
Working collaboratively with the Council I was able to obtain planning permission for all the proposed works with no pre-commencement conditions and construction commenced immediately. The owners were finally able to move back home in February 2015, little over a year later, safely in the knowledge that they would be able to live up above flood waters.
This is a perfect example of how powerful planning is when it comes to our homes - somewhere that we work so very hard for yet can be so vulnerable to outside forces. A very happy ending which also resulted (I think you would agree) in a much more appealing property.
I have dealt with a great many river front properties throughout my career so if you think you may be in need of an experienced planner in this field, please do get in touch.
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