Draft Black Country Plan

Comment

Representation ID: 22361

Received: 11/10/2021

Respondent: Canal & River Trust

The Trust welcomes the support given to the retention of the most important trees and hedgerows within the Black Country. The proposed requirement for landscape buffers alongside these natural assets is consistent with the suggestion outlined by the Trust in our comments on ENV7. We also welcome the ambitions for new tree planting (point 4). Our proposals for a 'Great Canal Orchard' explained in our
comments on policy ENV7) could make a valuable contribution to this and we suggest that a reference to it in the plan would increase the likelihood of developers contributing to the initiative.

Comment

Representation ID: 22362

Received: 11/10/2021

Respondent: Canal & River Trust

The Trust welcomes the specific reference to the need to sustain and reinforce the special character and conserve the historic aspects of the canal network, including associated infrastructure, buildings and structures in policy ENV5.

Comment

Representation ID: 22364

Received: 11/10/2021

Respondent: Canal & River Trust

The Trust welcomes the proposal to 'move towards the most up-to-date local open space, sport and focuses on quality, quantity and access.

Comment

Representation ID: 23088

Received: 11/10/2021

Respondent: Canal & River Trust

Part 7 of policy ENV9 focuses on avoiding adverse impacts from new development on the living environments of existing residential properties, including sunlight and daylight, artificial lighting, vibration and wind. New development that is not appropriately located and/or well designed can adversely impact nearby areas of public realm, green and blue infrastructure and open space in many of these ways. We suggest that either a point 8 should be added to policy ENV9 to address adverse impacts on such areas or point 7 should be amended to indicate that development will need to avoid adversely impacting areas of public realm, green & blue infrastructure or open space in these ways (where appropriate).

Comment

Representation ID: 23089

Received: 11/10/2021

Respondent: Canal & River Trust

In addition to river and surface water flooding (which are currently identified in policy CC1(f)), in some cases, it may be necessary for development to incorporate mitigation and resilience measures designed to reduce the risk of flooding from other sources. We suggest that amending this point to refer to any potential source of flooding would be consistent with the NPPF and NPPG.

Comment

Representation ID: 23090

Received: 11/10/2021

Respondent: Canal & River Trust

The Trust’s waterways provide a heat source that can be effectively used to provide heat and hot water to adjacent developments using water sourced heat pumps. We welcome the expectation in policy CC2 that heat sources for a communal heating system should be chosen to minimise likely emissions. The use of fossil fuels and all forms of energy generation that rely upon the combustion of carbonaceous feedstocks will need to be phased out and replaced by zero carbon, non-polluting and energy-efficient sources. Sustainably maximising the use of heat extraction from the canal network should have a valuable role to play in this.

The expectation that eat sources for a communal heating system should be chosen to minimise likely emissions could be strengthened by setting out a hierarchy against which developers and decision makers will be expected to assess proposals. Such an approach is set out in policy SI 3 (D) of the recently adopted
London Plan. It gives preference to zero-emission and local secondary heat sources over lower emission solutions like combined heat and power. The definition of secondary heat within the plan includes heat that exists naturally within the environment (air, ground and water)

Comment

Representation ID: 23091

Received: 11/10/2021

Respondent: Canal & River Trust

The University of Manchester has undertaken research into the effect of urban cooling from the Rochdale Canal on Manchester City Centre and concluded that there is a notable cooling effect from the canal. Policy CC2 should recognise the benefit of maintaining and enhancing (including through restorations) the Black Countrys waterway network as part of efforts to manage heat risk.

Comment

Representation ID: 23092

Received: 11/10/2021

Respondent: Canal & River Trust

It is important to ensure that policy CC5 is effective in minimising the probability and consequences of flooding from all sources, in accordance with the NPPF. Whilst f
some points of this policy, we suggest that part 1 The BCA will seek
to minimise the probability and consequences of flooding from all sources is referred to within some points of this policy, we suggest that part 1 of the should be amended to state 'The BCA will seek to minimise the probability and consequences of flooding FROM ALL SOURCES by...' (and the amendments that we suggest to CC1) would help to ensure that the requirement is clear from the outset.

The Trust owns and manages reservoirs within the Black Country. Building properties in the inundation zone of a dam could adversely alter the risk assessment for the reservoir which may require additional works to be carried out at the expense of the applicant/developer, to reduce the risk to an acceptable level. Whilst the likelihood of reservoir failure may be considered low, the consequences of such a failure can be significant. The failure of a reservoir has the potential to cause catastrophic damage due to the sudden release of large volumes of water. This change in risk cannot be properly quantified and assessed without detailed information and may require updated breach models, funded by the developer, to compare the current and proposed consequences of a dam failure. The outcome of this modelling should then form a key part of the Flood Risk Assessment for the site and will aid in determining whether mitigation measures either on or off-site can alleviate flood risk concerns and make the development compliant with national planning policy. This work would be necessary for the Trust to determine whether the applicant / developer will need to fund any work at a reservoir to mitigate increased risk. It should however be recognised that it is highly unlikely to be able to remove the risk entirely.

Developers need to be aware that sluices and weirs that CRT use to remove excess water from canal infrastructure may run in culvert under their site - even some distance from the canal. The same applies for feeders. Feeder abstraction points will soon be under licence conditions so any development near a point on a watercourse where the Trust abstracts must not alter the current set up.

Comment

Representation ID: 23093

Received: 11/10/2021

Respondent: Canal & River Trust

Subject to the Trusts' agreement to technical and commercial details, surface water can be sustainably discharged to the canal network. Water levels in the canal network are managed by the Trust using control structures such as weirs and sluices to maintain a suitable depth for navigation by boats, but also to try to avoid water levels becoming too high in periods of heavy rainfall where runoff from hard surfaces can lead to excess water passing into the canals. Given this, surface water discharge to canals can be a highly effective way of managing local surface water flood risk and may allow development of sites that would otherwise not be viable due to concerns with alternative site drainage options.

SUDs adjacent to or connecting to canals will need to be maintained to ensure they function as they were designed to and do not cause pollution or excess flows.

In the interests of local flood risk management and the protection of water quality, where a site proposes SUDs, this system should be designed in a way that if it were to fail the canal would not be inundated with water.

Comment

Representation ID: 23094

Received: 11/10/2021

Respondent: Canal & River Trust

We note from policy W3 that Local Employment Areas are identified as the preferred locations for waste management facilities. Many of these Local Employment Areas are located along the canal network of the Black Country and, as such, the development of new facilities has the potential to have a significant impact on the local natural and built environments of the canals. Policy W4 2(d) lists a number of criteria that will be considered for new waste management proposals. However, this list does not fully do justice to the requirements of policies set out elsewhere in the plan. For the avoidance of doubt, policy W4 or the
supporting text should state that waste management proposals will also need to comply with the requirements of relevant policies in other chapters of the plan (including policy ENV7).