David Peckford, the Assistant Director of Planning and Development at Cherwell District Council, has sent an email to a West Adderbury resident which confirms that CDC are NOT happy with the drainage scheme installed by Adderbury Parish Council on the Milton Road land.
In his email of 15 October 2020, Mr Peckford refers in particular to the infiltration basin (drainage pond) that has been installed – as previously reported this basin has less then 15% of the capacity of the approved basin:
“The attenuation pond provided so far does not conform with the required scheme. The Council’s Building Control Manager, who also provides advice on flood risk, has visited the site, observed that the swale has not so far been constructed to the consented dimensions and that a high level overflow has been installed from the swale into the adjacent ditch in the form of a short 100mm diameter pipe.
A land drainage consent would be needed for the overflow. To obtain consent, it would be necessary to demonstrate that the overflow would not cause flood risk downstream. Removing the overflow pipe would remove the requirement for land drainage consent but this would not resolve the issue of the undersized swale and the risk of overtopping. Implementing the approved surface water drainage scheme in full would be required to provide satisfactory drainage for the development once completed.
I am copying in the Parish Council so that there is clarity for all parties. May I ask the Parish Council if it could advise of its intentions regarding the completion of the drainage scheme as soon as it is able to do so. I believe it would be helpful if the residents association could also be advised.”
We note that Mr Peckford’s email has been copied in to the Parish Council.
This latest statement from CDC raises yet more questions about why our Parish Council has carried out work which puts West Adderbury properties at risk of flooding, and why it has taken no action to rectify the situation.
However, we believe there are more serious issues that need to be addressed here.
As recently as two weeks ago, the Parish Council published a statement in the October 2020 edition of Contact magazine (see page 4, below) which said that “The PC does have CDC’s agreement on everything we’ve done so far”.
This statement appears to be incorrect, or at least misleading, given Mr Peckford’s comments above.
The statement at point 4 above is also incorrect,because CDC have already confirmed that Adderbury Parish Council has breached both Condition 8 and Condition 18 of the planning permissions and CDC wrote to the PC in June 2020 to tell them so (see below).
It seems to us that:
Adderbury Parish Council knows that it has breached planning permissions.
Adderbury Parish Council knows that CDC does not “agree” with the drainage scheme they have installed.
So why has Adderbury Parish Council made apparently inaccurate and misleading statements to Adderbury residents?
We don’t have an answer, but what we can say is that the Parish Council’s behaviour does not inspire trust, and it does not lead us to believe that the PC has the interests and needs of West Adderbury residents at heart.
It also makes us wonder what else the Parish Council has not been entirely “accurate” about!