Laser mapping reveals flood issues in Telford school plans

A Telford school’s flat roof caused some confusion for a high-tech laser system used to create a flood map, planning documents show.

Detailed plans have been lodged for a new two storey standalone teaching block at Telford Park School which includes an assessment of the flood risk in the area.

“Due to the flood map for planning identifying an area of surface water flood risk, a Flood Risk Assessment is needed to determine the level of risk to the property and site users,” an official for Telford & Wrekin Council Highways and Engineering Services writes in the planning documents.

The documents say that there is an issue of water ‘pooling’ on part of the school’s car park but the proposed extension won’t increase any risks there.

But it also found an apparent “large area of low risk of surface water flooding” on a surface water risk map.

“This seems to be associated with the flat roof of the building itself which has been picked up in the LiDAR [light detection and ranging] used to generate the flood risk mapping,” officials report.

“As such this does not resemble a real flood event at ground level and is more an artifact of how the mapping was generated.”

LiDAR is a technology which uses laser light to create representations of the earth’s surface.

The officials conclude that as “no part of any new structure will be at risk of flooding and no other site infrastructure is proposed to be modified, no flood resilience or resistance measures are proposed and there will be no offsite impact as a result of the development”.

The plan has been lodged by biT Group, which is Telford & Wrekin Council’s own property development, design and project management consultancy.

Ecologists at Red Kite Network Limited have also studied the 0.23-hectare Grange Avenue site’s wildlife.

It has concluded that local hedgerows could offer suitable habitat for bats and birds.

Red Kite Network has asked for “careful consideration in relation to lighting schemes” to avoid potential impacts.

The site also has opportunities for ‘bug hotels’, bird boxes and bat boxes on existing trees or built into the design of new structures.

Drainage experts report that the new classrooms would be built partly on a drained car park and partly on a green margin between the car park and existing building.

This would add to the impermeable area of the site but it could be dealt with by rainwater planters and rainwater gardens.

More than 100 nearby addresses are listed as being contacted during a consultation period, including the 72 addresses at the new £17 million Stirchley House extra care housing scheme on the site of the former Stirchley Leisure Centre.