or should the government inspector be held accountable

[CuriousaboutSamphire]

... when they overturn local planning decisions and don't stick around you for the "We told you so" moment.

This is due for a pretty big housing development. It has been held up because the compound was drowned, a few cars wrecked (belonged to builders who got caught by surprise) and now this. It is not a rare occurence, happens every couple of years. Locals fought tooth and nail because of the knock on effect, local council turned it down and the developers took it to the government inspector... who overturned the local decision.

WIll prospective buyers be warned?

I hate to think about the insurance levels after the first house gets flooded!

And this is not the only new development in this area - we have easy motorway access. Previous sites had the same issues... but local decisions, made by local people who know the issues, are being overturned again and again! The buyers are the main losers, but people living nearby also get hot as the development changes the way the water drains, or rather does not drain!

But yeah! Keep building on green spaces, cos we need more houses!

Pshaw!

Where is this? It's hard to know without knowing the specifics of the decision.

There are a few sites around here that have “houses coming soon” signs or similar that have recently been under water.
I really hope prospective buyers are somehow warned

Planning Inspectors can only determine planning applications in line with the planning policies in force (they are independent by the way, not controlled by the Government).

Did the Environment Agency object to the planning application? Did they present evidence to the Inspector? Does the planning permission contain conditions relating to drainage, flood prevention etc?

I really hope prospective buyers are somehow warned

Surely it is down to prospective buyers to ensure they look into all aspects of the property they are buying? We get this a lot round here - issues with former landfill sites, flooding etc, noise from main roads.
Far too many new home buyers say 'they should have told us'

OK. That is a river flood plain... quite far from the river itself, but the land is flat and has a few minor waterways through it. It floods to some extent every year. Bad years the flood cuts off large parts of the county from the main city... This year is not the worse we have had recently.

The older houses, that have enver flooded, being built on natural rises, out of the flood plain, are now in real and immediate danger of being flooded. In the year or so since they broke ground the land has been flooded 3 or 4 times, this last one being a big one - and this picture is not the height of the water levels, the tracks were half submerged last week.

725 new homes are being built here, as part of a total of 1,300 homes (2000+ in a wider scheme) and a school in that immediate area! Sajid Javid authorised it, over the objections of locals and the local borough council!

It is part of Tewkesbury Borough COiuncil on the outskirts of Gloucester. The area has a few oddities, Civil War battle sites, flooding, difficult access because of the river convergence, it being tidal this far inland and utterly useless roads, single roads connecting dual carriageways forming very long bottle necks, it can take 90 minutes to drive 5 or 6 miles even when all the roads are open. They seem to think making the roundabouts bigger will solve the problem, but leave the length of single arriageway as, wait for it, the land either side is very prone to heavy flooding... this picture is just up the road and almost as prone to flooding!

www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/pumps-brought-save-55-homes-3896192

Seeline Yes, lots of agencies warned against it, including government agencies. There was a long and protracted local protest, with all sorts of evidence gathered and presented, by residents and the council. We may be rural but not stupid! This has happened a lot here and locals are very well armed with information, expertise and as much local media as is possible to get. But it isn't picked up by national media - the one time I remember it being picked up it was presented as a debate and locals labelled NIMBYs.

As for prevention, the existing new developments have some of that! And the pumps mentioned in the link are thought, by some, to as be a result of that, in part. The geology of the ground makes it difficult to drain without large scale drainage - none of which is being done (DH is a Civ Eng and has written to various agencies about this as part of his job).

Planning Inspectors can only determine planning applications in line with the planning policies in force (they are independent by the way, not controlled by the Government). I know, maybe I didn't writ ethat as clearly as I should have. Local council turned it down, The developers took it up the food chain. David Cameron visted and said it should not be built on... but Sajid Javid and the Planning Inspector sid go ahead, the flooding can be coped with and the locals had not choice but to approve it!

My question is that when they make such a decision then should they (the office not the individual) be held accountable when it is quickly shown that they were wrong, or did not insist on adequate changes to the proposed development!

Someone has to be accountable! Currently all the risk is taken by the home buyers! Of the new developement and all houses around it!

I wonder how long before it becomes an offence to make such information public ?

Surely it is down to prospective buyers to ensure they look into all aspects of the property they are buying? We get this a lot round here - issues with former landfill sites, flooding etc, noise from main roads.
Far too many new home buyers say 'they should have told us'

Surely that's what you pay the solicitors searches for?
I'll be honest that when I was house hunting I had no idea what I was looking for beyond checking out crime stats, schools and local planning applications. Buying a house is a friggin minefield as it is, hence paying professional to help you with the process.

Surely it is down to prospective buyers to ensure they look into all aspects of the property they are buying? Having seen the selling blurb form a similar development just the other side of the Welsh border, buyers are given lots of reassurances.. and then get left to it when "the unthinkable" happens! There are plenty of tales of buyers relying on the InfoPacks and then realising that they have no support when something happens!

I wouldn't buy one, but I know the land and its history! These are probably going to be sold to people freom outside the immedieate area, who may not know, or believe, how bad it can get! It is pretty idyllic in summer!

I thought this was going to be about the development in Newport (South Wales).

Council turned down a Redrow development only for the Welsh Assembly to over turn the decision and grant planning permission.

All great until Storm Dennis and someone's entire garden washed away down the river. Their back door now opens onto the river. Apparently 25ft of land gone.

I'm sure the council and Natural Resources Wales are sat there thinking "told you so".

Seren That's a scary thought!

Disclaimer: not my picture (mine was too fuzzy to use) I got it from Facebook, honest

I understand to and extent, the lack of housing is a huge huge problem. But clearly this isn’t really going to help. Do they not have some kind of flood defences planned?

Do they not have some kind of flood defences planned? You'd think so! This land was described by Ivor Gurney (poet) as 'water meadows'. They really are pretty in summer. They have a natural purpoe. You'd think there would be some serious thinking applied to the issue.

Previous "water plans" meant that he ara was removed from the development land quota. A later one didn't take into account the high water table, makes drainage diffcult / impossible. The flood zone info puts it as Zone 1 - very low flood risk.

Gloucestershire County Council provided a surface water flooding map over the site, which shows most of the site to be at very low risk of surface water flooding. Groundwater flooding is not believed to be a risk given the impermeable nature of the geology over most of the site Nobody local has any idea how they came to that decision as the whole area floods, a lot and is even tidal when there is a lot of water in the ground!

It's as if your eyes don't see what they see... year in year out that land and the land around it get extremely wet, every couple of years the immediate envrions flood, very badly, every few years that land floods, as you can see in the picture above!

Seren That's a scary thought!

www.theguardian.com/business/2017/feb/16/new-home-owners-gagged-over-poor-build-and-compensation-claims

Crikey!! That's ludicrous!