Planning role in flooding
I would love to know when Arun District Council will sit up and take responsibility for its role in exacerbating local flooding.
I am sick and tired of Arun District Council blaming Southern Water for flooding issues and completely avoiding its own very real role in approving and indeed continuing to approve large scale housing development in completely inappropriate areas.
I wonder if the general public realises that Southern Water can only advise about housing development, it has no powers to refuse, and Arun District Council repeatedly ignores this advice.
Pagham is a case in point. Southern Water have been working tirelessly in South Pagham for the last three weeks, continuously pumping to avoid flooding. Earlier in the winter flooding was so bad that pumping lasted even longer and pipes were in place to pump into Pagham Harbour.
What is Arun doing about this? It is planning to build 400 homes in South Pagham, virtually adjacent to and uphill from this area.
It is time for Arun to finally take responsibility and withdraw consent, otherwise there will be untold damage to South Pagham. Stop listening to your ill informed Planning Department, who have ignored advice from local residents and Southern Water, stop using the Local Plan as an excuse as the Planning Inspector was also badly informed about these risks.
I have repeatedly informed the Planning Department about floods in Pagham and have correspondence from Southern Water sharing their concerns, which I have shared with Arun
Panning Department. What has happened as a result – nothing, blindly continuing in the same ill informed direction.
It is high time to put an immediate stop NOW on large scale housing development in Pagham and other areas at such high risk of flooding...
‘Southern Water have been working tirelessly ’
Jane Weston
Church Lane, Pagham