Flooding worries prompt housing plan deferral

By Huw Oxburgh, BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporter

Councillors have deferred a decision on plans for a major housing development in Eastbourne due to widespread concerns about possible flooding.

Eastbourne Borough Council’s planning committee last night (Tuesday, 16 September) discussed an application from Catesby Strategic Land for permission to build up to 250 homes on land north of Pevensey Bay Road.

While recommended for approval by council planning officers, there was significant opposition from residents who raised concerns about the impact on local infrastructure and potential flooding.

Some of these concerns were highlighted during the meeting by Conservative councillor Kshama Shore, whose Sovereign Harbour ward adjoins the site. She is not on the planning committee but spoke under the 'right to address the meeting' section.

Cllr Shore said: “By your own admission this area is susceptible to flooding. [It has a] high probability of flooding. I am no expert on flooding, but common sense dictates that this development will impact on flood risk, especially surface water flood risk.

“This in turn will surely increase the risk in the residential areas around the site, along the adjacent watercourses and to the nearby surface water network.”

Cllr Shore said conditions proposed by officers would have required details of flood resilience and surface water drainage works to be agreed prior to construction, but argued this information was so important it should be made available to councillors before they made their decision.

Similar arguments were made by East Sussex county councillor David Tutt (Lib Dem) who also spoke as part of the 'right to address the meeting' section.

He said: “I’ve represented this area for over 40 years; I first became a councillor in 1980. My comments are not theoretical, they are actual.

“I have witnessed residents of the adjoining Poets estate in tears as they’ve watched raw sewage come up through their sinks and bathrooms. There have been times those residents, often elderly residents, have had to be bussed to the Sovereign Centre in order to wash.

“Flooding concerns go back generations. This was always low-lying farmland. Every estate that has been built has added to the impact and this will only increase the flooding problems that we’ve suffered.”

These concerns gained cross-party support from several committee members, who said they did not have enough information about how the development would protect surrounding properties from increased flood risks.

Cllr Nick Ansell (Con) said: “We don’t have enough information. In your report, you say the change in levels 'will direct overland surface water flows towards the properties of Tanbridge Road instead of the site as existing and will most likely increase flood risk to these properties [if
no mitigation measures are incorporated into the scheme]'.”

He added: “In order to say, ‘yeah let’s go ahead’ I would want questions answered about how the developer would protect these neighbouring properties”.

Cllr Amanda Morris (Lib Dem) said: “Outline planning in a flood plain requires a detailed flood risk assessment and that the proposed development will be safe and sustainable for a lifetime.

“I think that’s what my problem is. How can we prove that this will be safe and sustainable for the lifetime of the people who are buying the properties and the people who live [nearby]?

“I don’t think this proves it is safe and sustainable; I think there is lots of coulds, woulds, [and] mights.”

Officers said they believed the scheme could be built without unacceptable adverse impacts upon the built or natural environment, flood risk or the safe and effective operation of the highway network, as long as conditions were put in place.

Some of the details of the mitigations, they said, would need to be established as part of a later planning application.

They also highlighted how the site had been through a process known as a sequential test, which identified how other sites with lower flood risks could not be found in the nearby area.

The committee felt it did not have enough information to make a decision on the proposals, opting to defer the application to a future date.

The committee directed officers to seek further information about the flood mitigation works required to make the development safe for surrounding properties.

For further information, see application reference 230526 on the Eastbourne Borough Council website.

:: The Local Democracy Reporting Service is funded by the BBC in response to the decline in news coverage of local authorities’ activities. Credible media outlets governed by a regulator’s code of ethics can join the scheme and use these reports. The Eastbourne Reporter is governed by independent press regulator Impress.