Residents object to 25 homes

PLANS to build 25 homes in Lower Shiplake have been criticised for posing a flood risk.

L Wilson wants to build a mixture of one-bed maisonettes, two-bed, three-bed, four-bed and five-bed houses, with
40 per cent earmarked as affordable.

The site lies behind Audley Shiplake Meadows, a retirement village off Reading Road and to the north of New Road, a single-track road.

The application was submitted in January and South Oxfordshire District Council, the planning authority, is due to make a decision at a meeting on Wednesday.

Residents received letters on Monday informing them that the planning officer’s recommendation to the committee was to grant permission.

The officer said: “On this occasion the benefits provided by the proposed development would not be outweighed by the harm caused to the objectives of the neighbourhood plan and the localised residual harm to the attractive rural setting of Lower Shiplake.”

Despite the officer’s views, the application has been called to committee as it conflicts with the views of Shiplake Parish Council and is the subject of a call-in request from district councillors Leigh Rawlins and Ken Arlett. The developer has argued that several residential developments have been approved on other sites in the village, including some located close to the application site, and that the scheme will fill the government’s demand for more housing.

Residents say they are concerned about an increased risk of flooding from the development, with one neighbour claiming it would turn the village into “Atlantis”.

They said: “This is going to flood everything on New Road below Crowsley Road and potentially beyond. It’s going to be like Atlantis over here.”

Daniel Smith, who lives nearby, argued it would be “negligent” for the council to approve the current application while “knowingly disregarding the substantial risk of flooding to existing homes”.

Mr Smith said: “Based on long-standing, first-hand experience, we can confirm that the field in question is prone to flooding following periods of sustained rainfall.

“The construction of 25 residential units on this site will almost certainly exacerbate surface water run-off, resulting in flooding of our property. Water naturally flows downhill, and our home lies directly in the path of that flow.”

In its design and access statement, architects Omega said the land has a low probability of flooding and that it had left space at the northern part of the field to allow surface water flood routes to cross the site.

It said: “Given the observed properties of the soils and shallow geology, surface run-off from the site is not expected.”

A  flood risk assessment and drainage strategy commissioned by the applicants also found the flood risk was low.

In its planning statement, Woolf Bond Planning pointed to the 65-unit houses as part of Audley Shiplake Meadows, which the site will sit behind, as well as the houses in Baskerville Lane to the East, as surrounding development.

However, residents have said that there remain predominantly open fields to the south and west of the site.

In its response to the plans, Shiplake Parish Council said in the village’s neighbourhood plan Lower Shiplake and Shiplake Cross were categorised as “smaller villages”.

It argues that the development does not constitute “infill” which is defined by the district council as the filling of a small gap in an otherwise continuous frontage of buildings or on a site that its closely surrounded by buildings.

It said: “The proposal is for building a housing estate in open countryside, not in the settlement area, which shortens the distance between the villages and would therefore contravene the Shiplake neighbourhood  plan vision.”