Camden Council commissions hydrology study of the Heath to improve basements planning decisions

The basements/underground rivers issue has become an increasingly urgent concern in recent months in Camden. While the new Local Development Framework will have a much stronger policy restricting basements, I am pleased, as Executive councillor for Planning, that the Council is also actively responding to this concern by commissioning a wider study of the hydrology and geology in the area surrounding the Heath. This will provide an evidence base to inform decisions on future planning applications for basements.
The study will:
1.Identify those areas where due to the geology and hydrology further detailed studies are required before determining planning applications;
2.Explore case studies of existing basements in these areas to identify impacts, the effects of remediation etc,
3.A methodology for use by applicants in carrying out the studies referred to above
4.Details of how the council will assess these studies.

The study will mean that where there is clear evidence of ground instability or flood risk in relation to a property, there will be a greater onus on the applicant to demonstrate at application stage that the site conditions have been investigated in detail and detailed measures have been put forward to properly manage these issues. Each case will be judged on its own merits but it is likely that in such cases the Council would not approve an application until this information is provided (rather than relying on subsequent submission of details through a condition.)

Ground stability and flood risk are complex areas, and the situation in Hampstead and Highgate is made more difficult by the fact that there is no definitive document dealing with issues of ground stability across the whole of the area. The British Geological Survey exists as a nationally recognised record, and the Council would not be acting lawfully were it to ignore it when deciding applications, or to refuse applications on the basis that the data in the Survey is inherently flawed. But clearl the weight attached to damage assessment purposes by desk top studies using the British Geological Survey alone in deciding individual applications will need to be carefully considered.

No doubt basements will remain an emotive and controversial issue, but I am hopeful that the Council’s hydrology and geology study will undoubtedly the quality of information we have on which to make good planning decisions.