Breaking news Plan puts 50 Malmesbury homes at risk
5:00pm Thursday 23rd February 2012 in News
By Victoria Ashford
Listed historic houses and a 100-year-old bowls club are among the many premises under threat from run-off water from a proposed store.
This was the message from David Whitby, an architect, who spoke at a town council meeting on Monday about the impact on more than 50 houses near to the planned Waitrose development at the back of
the silk mills.
And Richard Mosdell, who has been the Malmesbury Bowls and Social Club green keeper for three years, warned another flood could be “catastrophic”.
He said: “If it got flooded it would cost an awful lot to put it right.
“I know from general chat around the club that if anything like that (a flood) happens again it would be catastrophic. There are several hectares of concrete (on the Waitrose site) and there would
be a hell of a lot of run-off water and that has got to go somewhere.”
Mr Whitby, who lives next to St John’s Bridge, criticised Waitrose for a lack of research into the flooding problems the store could create.
He said: “Anybody who lives in Malmesbury knows that the flooding occurs because the water is not getting through St John’s Bridge quickly enough.
“The whole of the Waitrose report only refers to flooding in the year 2000. There are a number of missing bits of information.
“They haven’t dealt with the high risk moment when the river is full and at that moment if you add extra water you are going to make St John’s Street flood.”
Mr Whitby called for the application to be rejected by the town councillors.
“What I want to make clear is that there is a material and substantial problem with this,” he said.
“The research has not been done (by Waitrose) and we now need to reject it materially.
“There are 50 houses that flood and you are looking at a significant increase in that risk.”
Councillors have agreed to hold a consultation day on Saturday, March 10, for residents to find out more about the Waitrose application and Gleesons application for 180 homes, before the
applications are discussed at a planning meeting on March 14.
Waitrose was unavailable for comment as the Gazette and Herald went to press.