Plan for housing on flood risk site
PREVIOUS PROPOSALS FOR LAND HAVE BEEN REJECTED
PLANS have been submitted for houses on a South Derbyshire site previously called “totally unacceptable” due to the risk of “harmful flooding”.
Lonxone, registered to the Seychelles, has submitted plans to build 24 houses off Ivy Close in Willington, on a slice of land between the canal, railway and highways depot.
If approved by South Derbyshire District Council, the development would include seven one-bed houses, 14 twobed homes and a trio of three-bed properties. The authority will make a decision in the next few months.
A document submitted with the application, written by consultants UK Flood Risk on behalf of the Seychelles firm, says the proposed development is “categorised as more vulnerable” from flooding.
It says: “The proposal will be safe, in terms of flood risk, for its design life and will not increase the flood risk elsewhere.
“The overall risk of surface water flooding to the site is low. The flood risk from other sources, including underground water, sewer and reservoir, is low.
“According to the information available from the Strategic Flood Risk Assessment and the Environment Agency, there were no records of flooding events at the site.”
If approved, the site, in flood zone one, said to be the least likely to flood, would have 59 parking spaces.
In favour of the 24-home plans, Lonxone says: “The need to provide for the ageing population in terms of affordable and market housing is increasingly becoming a key material planning consideration.
“The benefit of providing such accommodation in the short term is that it delivers multiple outcomes that weigh significantly in favour of the proposal.
“Often people of retirement age under-occupy the former family home, particularly if widowed, and are reluctant to leave unless there is a compelling and positive incentive to do so. “Each unit can be specifically adapted where required, so the occupants can continue to live independently but also in an environment that includes their peers.”
In February 2020, district council officers said plans from Monument 4 Ltd to build 60 flats on the same site could trigger “harmful flooding”.
After heavy floods in the village in late 2019, councillors had said they could not approve a scheme without proof it would not worsen the issue. Then leader of the council, Cllr Martyn Ford, who represents Willington, had said: “This is a totally unacceptable scheme in an unacceptable location.” Cllr Peter Watson had said: “We’ve just had some of the biggest floods since 2000, and the developer hasn’t proven this wouldn’t cause flooding.”
This is a totally unacceptable scheme in an unacceptable location
Cllr Martyn Ford