Fear homes on clay pit site will cause flooding
WATER LEVEL RISING AT SITE WHERE HOUSING SCHEME WAS GRANTED APPROVAL ON APPEAL
FEARS new homes on a former clay pit will lead to more flooding have resurfaced after a large hole on the site started to fill up with water.
Plans for the development on Hinckley’s Big Pit were turned down twice by the borough council before developer Orbit Group Ltd was given the go-ahead on appeal by a planning inspector in 2019.
Opponents were concerned the mixture of clay soil and natural springs in the area would lead to flooding in an already soggy part of the town.
A hole left by draining a former lake has now started to fill up with water in the wake of Storm Eunice and Storm Franklin in February.
The Big Pit is near to Ashby Road Cemetery, which is already so prone to flooding that one family are considering exhuming their mother because her grave is submerged so often.
Rosie Holmes lives in a house that backs on to the Big Pit.
She said she has had so many problems with her garden flooding since she moved in nine years ago that she had to spend £2,000 putting drainage measures in place.
But despite the work, her garden still floods, which means her fiveyear-old daughter and her border collie cannot play outside.
Speaking about the puddle in the middle of the pit, Rosie said: “It’s definitely risen.
“There was one point when it was almost drained. Now it’s gone back to where it was towards the latter part of last year.
“The ground around here is mostly clay, there’s nowhere for it to drain into.
I’m concerned. I try not to think about it – it’s very upsetting. I don’t think people are going to want to live here. Rosie Holmes
“I’m concerned. I try not to think about it – it’s very upsetting.
“It’s clearly natural springs. Even on days when it’s not raining, it will eventually fill up.
“I don’t think people are going to want to live here.”
Clay mined from the site was used by Jackson and Co and Hudson’s brick companies from the 19th century to the 1930s.
Excavation of the clay stopped once the hole was 13m deep, which was said to be due to water ingress, and the pit was eventually turned into a lake.
A number of planning applications relating to the site began in 2005, which were refused and then given the green light on appeal.
Further plans were then submitted to fill in the lake and build 60 homes, which sparked campaigns against it, before councillors rejected the application.
Orbit Group then submitted a new plan, which was again turned down by councillors in 2018, only for it to be granted on appeal the following year by the Planning Inspectorate.
Hinckley councillor David Bill was among those who campaigned against the housing development.
He said: “We’re still distressed that it was ever given permission in the first place.
“We said over and over again that there are springs there.
“The ground conditions are such that it’s a most unsuitable place to build on.
Orbit has been contacted but we had not received a response by the time of publication.