Response to questions raised by Ann Smeaton, Secretary of Hamside Residents Association:
The occupiers of homes in Shapwick Road, particularly no’s. 4 to 17, feel that their privacy has been comprised by the adjacent new development. This is particularly the case with the three storey structures at the rear ‘containing huge windows’.
The relationship between the new development and the existing homes around the site was the subject of detailed discussions with the developers and was carefully considered by the Planning Committee in granting planning permission for the redevelopment of the site.
Apartment block A , adjacent to no. 1 Shapwick Road, has no windows other than to a stairwell in its rear (west) elevation facing no.1. These are required by a condition attached to the planning permission to be glazed with obscured glass.
A terrace of three storey houses to the rear of the Shapwick Road homes have their main living rooms facing south, away from Shapwick Road. The windows in the north elevation, facing Shapwick Road, are to a study/bedroom (ground floor), a kitchen and landing with a small terrace off (first floor) and to a bedroom and landing with a small terrace off (second floor). The design of these houses and their distance from the homes in Shapwick Road are such that whilst existing residents will inevitably enjoy less privacy than they did when adjoining undeveloped land, the effect of the new homes will not be such that planning permission could reasonably have been withheld for the scheme.
As a consequence of the land levels being raised prior to development, surface water now drains down towards Shapwick Road, causing flooding. Such flooding did not previously occur.
Standing water may have arisen because of the disruption to the natural drainage and the possible raising of the water table during the adjacent building works. Any temporary problems in this respect should be resolved by the completion of the necessary surface water drainage infrastructure. There is nevertheless a duty of care on the developers to ensure that their works do not harm adjacent property.
Wessex Watercommented in respect of the redevelopment of the site that both foul and surface water sewer capacity exists to serve the proposed development. All surface water was to go to an on-site pumping station, which they expected to adopt. These works are understood to have not yet been completed.
Despite the flood defence work in the Park, Shapwick Road residents are experiencing great difficulty in obtaining property insurance that provides for ‘flooding’.Concerns with regard to drainage and to flooding in the vicinity were raised by Wessex Water and the Environment Agency when the matter was being considered by the Planning Committee.
Neither the Environment Agency nor Wessex Water objected to the proposed redevelopment as approved.
The Environment Agency have identified parts of Lower Hamworthy as being within the undefended 1 in 200 year tidal flood plain and therefore susceptible to flooding until such time as a full flood defence scheme is constructed. Flooding would currently be from the Back Water Channel rather than across the adjacent Park and Port Branch Line. A Flood Risk Assessment demonstrated that adequate flood defence and access provision could be made for the new development and these measures were secured by the planning permission. Whilst the new development will improve the means of escape from existing homes in the event of flooding, it will not reduce the risk of flooding to existing home from the Back Water Channel.
Any difficulties in obtaining flood insurance is presumably therefore unrelated to the adjacent development but is instead a consequence of the Environment Agency’s published flood risk maps for the UK.