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Flood plains

C

Colin Barron

pfm Member
Most would agree we will need to adapt to rising water levels due to the effects of global warming. Durham's Labour controlled council has decided we need a new county hall so after consultation which consisted of telling the public what, where and how it was going to be built there was uproar in the community.
One of the objections was that it was on the riverbank and prone to flooding on an increasingly regular basis. This is the foundations of the new county hall.
https://www.facebook.com/countydurhamalert/photos/a.832210850221650/2605575996218451/?type=3&theater
The planning and building control departments from my dealings with them are excellent at doing what they do, so i think politics has won over practical common sense. Plenty of spin will be needed on Monday.
 
Cav said:
What would you like me to do about it?
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Not much we can do, the parish council went to court to prevent the City Council development on grounds of access, pollution, lack of parking and building on a flood plain. Building went ahead anyway, absolute madness.
 
Estate Agents will be putting a premium on houses built on top of hills , same as off-road parking.
 
There is a solution to building on flood plains, they do it in France as a matter of routine. It does involve lower density housing but it can be done. It involves a bit of earthworks and ideally some sacrificial land nearby but it’s not too disastrous. The routine is that they construct a levee by the river and the houses are either on the top of the levee or on a smaller levee. Around them is a large area of low lying sacrificial land. If and when it floods the bottom of the garden disappears for a week or two. In this sense it is easier to protect flat land than it is hill villages like Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd. The hill villages have nowhere nearby to lose the water, once it’s in a steep sided valley it is coming down. The same amount of water in East Anglia can be nullified by a 1m earth bank, because it will be spread over a huge area and so only a couple of inches deep.


Developers don’t want to do this in the UK because it costs money. They will only do it if forced, as they have been with the underground reservoirs for rainwater that are now a requirement in all new developments.
 
Just building a new estate near me in Poynton.
All the houses are on stilts...
I kid you not.
 
beat me to it, houses have been built on stilts for years in other countries, you would only have to be 2 meter's at the most off the ground, and then you also have your parking,
 
graystoke4 said:
beat me to it, houses have been built on stilts for years in other countries, you would only have to be 2 meter's at the most off the ground, and then you also have your parking,
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Great idea and done quite a bit in places like Florida where Hurricanes are common. Also keeps the land open to soak up the water. In the UK this may become de rigeur in future.
 
Bob McC said:
Just building a new estate near me in Poynton.
All the houses are on stilts...
I kid you not.
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There's a chap in the Somerset Levels who got tired of being flooded every 5 years, his is a grand house in the middle of a flood plain with extensive grounds. He has a business hiring out earthmoving equipment to the construction industry, so his solution was to build a waterproof earth bank all the way around his property. Now when it floods his house becomes an island and he drives over the bank to enter and leave.
 
They really need to think about consequences before building on these flood plains ,the houses may have to cost more but far better then being flooded out every year.
No precautions , No building allowed seems sensible
 
peter bj said:
They really need to think about consequences before building on these flood plains ,the houses may have to cost more but far better then being flooded out every year.
No precautions , No building allowed seems sensible
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It's looking that way. The easiest would be to build it into the planning consent. No stilts, no house. I like the way modern town houses are designed, with a garage ground floor and living space above. They aren't astronomically expensive, the only drawback is that what's in the garage is expendable. However given that most people only put garden junk in there a flood wouldn't be the end of the world. The kid's bike, a garden chair and a barbecue are flooded out. Ooh, how will you cope?
 
That’s daft.
Stilts solve the problem.

anyway we’ll just have to learn how Venice has coped for centuries.
 
Think I'll put my name down for one of these...
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Bob McC said:
That’s daft.
Stilts solve the problem.

anyway we’ll just have to learn how Venice has coped for centuries.
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What's daft about making the stilts into walls and creating a secure garage/ storage area? It's not flooded every day and I'm not suggesting that you keep the crown jewels there. If my garden furniture is in a flood every 2 years I'll not sweat it. A bigger problem is what you do for roads and car parking if there's 2 or 3 feet of water outside every couple of years.
 
Stilts seem the obvious answer, or flotation devices. The latter are often fitted to mobile homes, sports pavilions etc., and can lift a building up some 3 metres on cantilevered arms.
 
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