NO DECISION OVER HOMES PLAN FOR FLOOD GROUND

5/12/2007

PLANNERS are no nearer to deciding whether 171 homes can be built on land in Tuffley which was stricken during the July floods.

Last night Gloucester City Council's planning committee deferred the plans for new homes on Bodiam Avenue for the second time since the summer flooding crisis.

The site, which was inundated during the summer emergency looked more like "a lake" according to one resident.

The application from Bovis Homes was scrapped from the October agenda to give Gloucester City Council, the applicant and the Environment Agency more time to discuss flood risk at the site.

Now Bovis has agreed to raise the floor height of the homes to stop them flooding and has proposed a range of measures to reduce the rate of surface water run-off including porous paving in parking areas and infiltration carrier drains.

But planners are still not convinced existing homes will be protected.

Campaigners whose homes were ruined in the July emergency joined forces with ward Councillors to lobby committee members outside North Warehouse before they went into the meeting.

Speaking at the meeting, campaign leader Alan McKay told members: "The meeting between the Environment Agency decided to increase the height of floor levels so that new homes won't flood but what about the existing homes?

"By moving the flood plane it's just moving it to the other side of Daniel's Brook."

Councillors voted to defer the decision to get yet more information from the Environment Agency.

Councillor Elaine Emerton said: "We don't know a lot about water run off and we're going to stick more housing there?

"We've got photos of the land with water on it.

"There's not enough information for me to make an informed decision."

Speaking after the meeting, ward councillor Steve Morgan said he believed "in an ideal world" the decision to build on the site would be reversed.