Key information
Request reference number: MGLA290926-8860
Date of response:
Summary of request
I am writing to you to ask for information under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 relating to the pressures being placed upon sewage and water infrastructure in England and Wales from new development in your area.
Please can you provide a list of:
a) any new housing developments in your authority area, where a sewerage undertaker and/or water company has objected to connection of the development to the foul sewer in the planning process, from the last three years (May 2023 - May 2026)
b) for each site, please provide the following information:
i) the location of the site (address, easting/northing, or National Grid Reference)
ii) the number of dwellings being proposed
ii) planning application reference
iv) links to documents or copies of the documents containing the details of the objection e.g. planning committee report
v) if a planning condition requiring a strategic foul water strategy to be submitted to the local Planning Authority has been applied (Yes/No)
Please can the information be provided as an excel format.
I am seeking recorded information held by the authority. While individual planning files may be available on a public planning portal, locating and compiling all relevant cases would require a manual search across potentially thousands of records. Therefore, section 21 (information reasonably accessible by other means) would not provide equivalent access to the information requested if the authority holds records, reports, databases, registers or searches capable of identifying such cases.
Our response
The Greater London Authority has refused this request under regulation 12(4)(b) of the EIR because it is manifestly unreasonable by reason of the substantial burden that complying with it would impose.
The information you have requested is not held in a form that would enable it to be identified and extracted through a simple search. To answer the request, officers would need to:
- identify each planning application referred to the GLA within the scope of the request (approximately 600 applications);
- examine the records for each application individually;
- determine whether the relevant water authority submitted a response in relation to that application; and
- establish whether planning permission was subsequently granted.
Advice/assistance:
Under regulation 9 of the EIR, public authorities must provide advice and assistance where reasonable to do so.
As you may be aware, the Greater London Authority is consulted on all strategic planning application in London for developments over 150 dwellings, and for the majority of applications decides not to intervene thus allowing the individual local planning authority to determine the applications as it sees fit. This request may be best placed for the individual planning authorities to report rather than the GLA.
You may wish to submit requests to the London local planning authorities https://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/london-directory
If you are interested in a narrower category of applications, for example a specific time period, geographic area, and a smaller subset of planning applications. e.g. those determined by the GLA, you may be able to submit a narrower request to the GLA that does not trigger a refusal.
That said, over the last 3 years the GLA have called in 14 planning applications to determine as local planning authority and none have received objections from the applicable water authority in relation to connections to sewer, subject to the imposition of suitably worded planning conditions.
The web site below will list out the applications to which I refer and there are further links to each application where you will find the Hearing Report will highlight the relevant consultation response.