Welcome To Wirral

The Environment Agency has statutory responsibility for flood management and defence and identifies areas at risk of flooding from the sea and "main rivers" (the Birket, Fender, Dibbin and tributaries). They are consulted on all planning applications within areas at risk of flooding. You can find out whether a particular location is at risk of flooding from the Environment Agency’s web site by entering a postcode in the search box for "Flood Map" on the home page.

Additional information on tidal flooding and coastal erosion can be found in the Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) for Great Ormes Head to Formby Point: the plan can be viewed and downloaded from the North West & North Wales Coastline website.

All forms of flooding and their impact on the natural and built environment are material planning considerations. National Planning policy on development and flood risk is set out in Planning Policy Statement 25 (PPS 25), which can be viewed on the Communities and Local Government website. PPS25 aims to ensure that flood risk is considered at all stages of the planning and development process to avoid inappropriate development in areas at risk of flooding and to direct development away from areas at highest risk. Where new development is, exceptionally, necessary in such areas, policy aims to make it safe without increasing flood risk elsewhere and where possible reducing flood risk overall.

Local planning policies relating to flood risk are currently set out in the Unitary Development Plan (UDP). The Council has recently begun work on the Local Development Framework for Wirral, which in time will replace the UDP.

In assessing planning applications in flood risk areas, in addition to national and local policy considerations, the Local Planning Authority will take into account the views of the Environment Agency, and engineers in the Council’s Coast Protection and Drainage and Development Sections.