CONTROVERSIAL plans to build houses on a flood zone in Worcester have been approved after experts insisted the new homes would not be at risk.

Worcester City Council’s planning committee gave the go-ahead for the development of eight houses in Waterworks Road, Barbourne, after seeking further clarification from the Environment Agency about the potential risk to the properties, as well as visiting the site to see the situation for itself.

Last month, we reported how flood campaigners described the plan to build homes in a red flood zone as “absolutely barking mad”.

But a letter from the Environment Agency’s Justin Burnett said it was only a very small part of the site which fell into the higher risk category.

Mr Burnett wrote: “Unless there is an extreme event, we believe this site would remain dry.

“As such, we do not feel it would be appropriate to object to this application.

“The site falls almost completely within flood zone 2 – this is the medium probability of flood risk zone, defined as land between a one-in-100 and a one-in-1,000 chance of flooding.

“There is a small area of garden that falls into flood zone 3 – but the land is not being raised and will be permeable (grass).”

Mr Burnett went on to question the accuracy of the city council’s red zone system.

He recognised that the system was acknowledged nationally as a good example of sustainable flood risk policy, but suggested it needed updating.

The city’s senior planning officer Alan Coleman recommended the scheme be approved, explaining the development would actually improve land drainage.

The site is currently covered in hard-standing concrete, but its development would lead to much of this being replaced with a combination of grass and permeable materials.

Committee members said they felt much more secure in approving the scheme than when they deferred a decision last month.

Labour councillor Paul Denham said: “Now we’ve had this further information and done a site visit, I’m much more reassured. Clearly there will be more permeability on the site than there is at the moment, so that will actually improve the risk to neighbouring properties.

“All of us were worried by the fact nearby properties had had severe flooding, but we’ve now seen those other properties were much, much nearer the river than this development.”