[CMOTD]

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this one: A new development of 226 houses in my local town of King's Lynn was passed by the council despite the Environment Agency objecting because it was in a high risk flood zone.

Unfortunately they have been unable to start construction because the site is - wait for it - currently under 2ft of water! You really couldn't make it up. Flood plain, the clue is in the name.

[StuBeeDoo]

I'm with you on this one.  Around here, we had a development a few years ago that suffered numerous delays because every time there was rain the site flooded and work had to stop.  

Mind, the elements aren't confined to precipitation.  Our 120-year-old former quarryman's cottage is near the top of a valley.  The visible horizon is nearly 10 miles away, so we're exposed.  Flooding is something we are not exposed to.  Early in 2005 there was a storm with 100+ mph winds, which took the roof - and those of both our immediate neighbours - clean off.  If you'll pardon the pun, every cloud has a silver lining.........  During the rebuild I had the attic, which was previously a complete waste of space due to the vast quantity of trusses, opened-up and now I can use the space for my slot car track (and household storage).

[Savage GT]

Surely they will be hard to sell, any surveyor worth his salt would point this out to potential buyers ?
This "need" for housing is inexplicable TBH, not many people can afford to buy these days.

[Top Down]

Same in our area. Existing houses already on the edge of a flood plain but not previously flooded were recently. Owners had objected to 130 new houses being built ON the flood plain as it would mean their houses were more likely to be flooded. Local planners overruled objections.  

As feared, existing and new houses were all flooded. 

Pre-existing home owners are now taking a class action against the council.

[Scuderia_Turini]

Similar story when I lived in Midlothian. Many houses being built in a sloping field with my street at the bottom of the slope. I wrote to council objecting on the basis that existing field absorbed much rainfall and the small ditch behind our houses coped with any run-off. Building on and tarmac-ing the field would mean the rain water would cascade down to our houses. Never heard from them. I departed before the houses were built but I heard that once the estate was established the houses at the bottom of the slope got water into the basements.  A lucky escape for me.

I was told that Local Authority Councillors pay/award is tied to the population count in the district so their default is to approve new housing.

[mickey thumbs]

In my corner of the US it’s just as crazy. Local governments in one jurisdiction are buying up frequently flooded homes built years ago in flood plains to demolish them and re-establish proper drainage, whereas planning boards in other areas are giving in to pressure from politicians and developers to approve new projects bound to be under water eventually.

Like S.T. our home is downhill from a lovely wooded area and two years a single house with two asphalt driveways was built directly above us and we have experienced erosion and flooding ever since. Amazing how much water runoff there is from that one house!

[Gordon Steadman]

We live in a house built in 1900 out of granite. It's at the bottom of a long hill, all farmed. The ground at the back of the house is four feet above the inside floor level. In heavy rain and wind we have no damp enter the house at all. This is because someone used what has become a diminishing feature of human existence. Common sense. There are deep channels cut to divert water where it will do no damage and these feed into ditches alongside the roads. There is no mains drainage.  Just once in the two years we have been here, I've seen the ditches almost full of water and that was after a cloudburst the like of which I have never witnessed. (The bunnies over the road almost drowned but that's another story)

All the houses in our small hamlet were farm workers places, except ours of course, we have the boss man's place :-)  Built to live in not just to make money.

I wonder how much the councils were bunged to allow building on flood plains.