A leading house-builder which should have carried out flood risk checks before people moved into their homes in a village near Bath in 2019 is under scrutiny as the planning condition still hasn’t been signed off, six years later.
The River Boyd in Bitton next to the development
There are more than 100 properties at the Bitton Mill estate, which was built by Linden Homes (now part of Vistry) on the former Intier factory site in Bitton.
The site next to the River Boyd received planning permission from South Gloucestershire Council in 2015 and used land-raising to reduce the flood risk to occupants.
The Environment Agency (EA) required the developer to submit “comprehensive flood modelling” to support moving the development to a lower category of flood risk.
The hydraulic modelling that was carried out to support the initial application has to be re-run to reflect the new ground levels after the land was raised.
There are also other outstanding planning conditions from the original planning application, although condition 4, which relates to the flood modelling, is proving the most problematic.
Since the estate was first occupied, numerous homes have been sold on without the planning issue being raised.
However, it appears that the issue has been more actively chased by the Environment Agency as it has come to the attention of solicitors handling sales, and is now so overdue that it can’t be ignored any longer.
The Echo understands that one sale recently nearly fell through and was only saved at the last minute after pressure was put on Vistry and a direct indemnity covenant was agreed with the buyer.
The Environment Agency told the Echo that it has reminded the developer “on several occasions” that it must submit an updated flood model to reclassify the development flood risk.
“Until the developer carries out this responsibility, the site remains at a higher flood risk designation.
“A detailed assessment of flood modelling must also be completed by the developer to prevent residents facing raised insurance premiums.”
A South Gloucestershire Council spokesperson told us: “In order to discharge this planning condition, we require the developer to update the Environment Agency with the results of the hydraulic modelling study they have carried out.
“We are aware there has been recent contact between them in respect of the submission and we look forward to receiving the required information in due course.”
The council added that as the developer is “actively engaging” at this time, no formal enforcement action has been taken but its planning enforcement team is “monitoring” the situation.
The council has not explained why the situation has been allowed to drag on for so long when the flooding condition should have been sorted prior to residents moving in.
Vistry has not responded to repeated requests from the Echo to explain what is going on, with a spokesperson simply telling us: “We are always happy to assist with individual queries and customers can contact us directly via our dedicated customer service team.”
