Taunton Deane Core Strategy

Presentation by Ralph Willoughby-Foster on Green Infrastructure and Flood Defence

Contents:• Green Wedges• SFRA• Taunton Flood Risk Management Guidance• Green Infrastructure Strategy

Taunton’s existing Green Wedges

Green Wedge functions

• To maintain the separate identity of settlements and prevent coalescence

• To bring open countryside into the town centre• To provide a landscape setting for the town• To provide formal and informal recreation• To accommodate land liable to flood• To provide for wildlife and biodiversity

Taunton Deane SFRA

Taunton town centre 1960

Taunton town bridge 2000

Long Run Farm replacement flood storage

What is Green Infrastructure?

Green infrastructure is defined as:“Protected sites, nature reserves, green spaces and greenway linkages which should where possible, provide multifunctional uses, e.g. wildlife, recreation and cultural experience, as well as delivering ecological services, such as flood protection and micro-climate control. It should also operate at all spatial scales from urban centres through to the open countryside”.

Purpose of the strategy

To create and enhance green infrastructure across the Borough, particularly at Taunton and Wellington, and maximise its potential to meet a diversity of functions, including wildlife habitat, recreation, flood alleviation and visual amenity, and to identify opportunities for GI within and adjacent to potential development areas to inform the LDF, and to identify approaches to funding and implementation of the green infrastructure proposals.

Green Infrastructure in North Taunton

Green Infrastructure network• Green space enhancement and creation• Key gateway• Cultural heritage interpretation• Strategic flood attenuation• Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS)• Blue and Green links• Circular route around Taunton• Conservation of landscape and ecological settings• Structural landscape mitigation/enhance urban fringe• New Green Wedges / enhance existing

Norton Fitzwarren

New dam on Halse Water 2007

Halse Water culvert 2007

South Taunton proposals

Comeytrowe and Trull

Green Infrastructure in North Taunton

Monkton Heathfield and Priorswood

Benefits of SUDs – Taunton E P&R Control rainfall principally where it hits the ground Slow down water runoff Reduce flooding potential Improve Water Quality Enhance public amenity and wildlife habitats