A CAR park being created for a new housing development in Westbury will exacerbate drainage issues in an area that has already suffered “biblical” flooding, local residents fear.
Mendip Developments Limited is building nine homes on land in Gibbs Close after its planning application was approved in April. With two parking spaces per home being allocated on new tarmac as part of the development residents who live further down the road told White Horse News they were worried about drainage and the potential for flooding.
“We have lived here for five years and in the last 18 months we have had about three occasions where it’s been biblical-like floods down the lane,” said one couple. Overflow will go into the stream that runs down the back of Gibbs Close houses.
“We have no problem with there being a development on that site of perhaps two or three houses, but nine houses, with 18 parking spaces and a new road is too much.”
Concerns were also raised that houses built further up Alfred Street which connects to Gibbs Close, which do not have their own parking spaces, were built on the understanding that they could park on the street. But as part of the development a new access road will be built opposite the houses at the top of Alfred Street, leading to a loss of 7 of those on-street parking spaces.
“Where are they going to park?” the couple added.
‘When the application was lodged, residents claimed that plans were unnecessarily rushed through at the beginning of the pandemic using delegated powers. They say that as a result, the public had no right to speak or hear what was said during the meeting.
A spokesperson for Mendip Developments Limited said, “Wiltshire Council gave full planning permission to this development back in April 2020, they obviously agreed that the 18 x new parking spaces being delivered with the 9 x new homes would be adequate.
“Regarding concerns being raised around flooding from the development – apart from an extensive FRA (Flood Risk Assessment) being carried out on this site, we have been forced to work with a 1Ltr per second discharge rate into the watercourse. This is extremely low and with us attenuating all of the surface water on site, it demonstrates a 1/100Yr flood risk being achieved.
“What that really means is although we are likely to be discharging more water into the ditch than the current site is, we are able to store it and release at the same flow rates leading to no more pressure on the watercourse.”
