Agenda and minutes

To confirm and sign the minutes from the meeting of 14 May 2025.

The minutes of the meeting of the 14 May 2025 were confirmed and signed as an accurate record.

To determine the application.

Richard Fitzjohn presented the report to members.

Members asked officers the following questions:

·         Councillor Mrs French stated that she does have concerns with regards to the flooding issues in Elm Road, with the last time it flooded being in 2020 with raw sewage, which was an issue for Anglian Water and she is surprised that the County Council Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA) are sanctioning a pumping system. She added that for many years there was a pumping system, which still exists, but it has cost the County Council hundreds of thousands of pounds to correct it down Sycamore Close in March West and for over 20 years as soon as it rained heavily, the pump shut down and the houses were flooded. Councillor Mrs French expressed the opinion that it will be a case of buyer beware and the people who buy the properties should be made aware that they are going to have to maintain it and that should the pump develop a fault or break down then they are likely to be flooded. Harry Pickford from the County Council’s LLFA stated that, with regards to the pump station, the applicants undertook some pump failure modelling which is a requirement for using pumps to remove water from off a site. He explained that the requirement is quite onerous, and it looks at the one hundred years plus climate change event with the storage at half capacity and zero discharge from the site. Harry Pickford added that they have looked at whether the water will pond on the site in that situation and it demonstrated to be held fully within the red line boundary and within the curtilage of the highway itself. He made the point that from the modelling which has been undertaken by the applicant it should not be flooding any properties in the development and should not be shedding any pumped water off site. Councillor Mrs French stated that there can be no guarantees that bad weather is not going to close the pumps down which is what happened at Sycamore Close for over 20 years and there were possibly 10 to 15 homes which suffered from constant flooding, so she is not convinced. She added that Middle Level Commissioners (MLC) are also not convinced, and she is pleased that they have provided an update.

·         Councillor Marks stated that in the officer’s report it explains that during a significant flood event, the downstream may take 5 to 10 days to return to normal and during this time discharge of any kind may not be possible with half drain times becoming unachievable. He asked officers to explain what happens to the water during the 5 to 10 days? Harry Pickford explained that the attenuation on site is provided to accommodate for the storm durations and the half drain times have also been included within the modelling. He made the point that when they have modelled the system it has been designed to accommodate the half drain times  ...  view the full minutes text for item P13/25

To determine the application.

Richard Fitzjohn presented the report to members.

Members received a presentation, in accordance with the public participation procedure, from Councillor Tierney, District Councillor. Councillor Tierney made the point that he is not just speaking for himself but for both the other District Councillors who represent this ward. He expressed his amazement that he has to be at the committee meeting at all and that this proposal has been recommended for approval by officers and he urged committee to reject it immediately.

Councillor Tierney expressed the opinion that this is not just an ill-considered proposal, it is mad and in all the time he has been a councillor he cannot think of a proposal that has been crazier than this for lots of reasons. He made the point that the public often think they are at war with applicants and the planning officers, which he understands as increasingly, in his view, no common sense is applied.

Councillor Tierney stated that in the Local Plan it is very clear that South Wisbech developments would need to overcome pressure on Weasenham Lane and that the area will be predominantly for business purposes but this application proposes hundreds of houses. He feels this would create an enormous amount of additional traffic, with additional traffic for 300+ houses equating to hundreds and hundreds of cars, with these roads not being ready to take that level of traffic and no amount of the proposed changes is going to fix this and it would create so much congestion and an unacceptable impact on highway safety, contrary to LP15 of the Local Plan.

Councillor Tierney referred to the use of best and most versatile land (BMV), making the point that other applications have been refused because they were not good use of Fenland’s brilliant agricultural land and this land cannot be kept being built on when it should be used for farming, making this contrary to Policy LP3 due to the advice in regard to the best use of agricultural land. He stated that the key point for him relates to flooding, the IDB have stated that they do not support this proposal and have objected, with, in his view, good reason, Councillor Hoy and himself were so worried about this development that she e-mailed the members of the committee to try and show members the big problems with this development and they would have seen the photos that he has seen which show that in the last year that area has completely flooded multiple times and there is no amount of fixing that, it is a natural problem for the low level of that land and allowing houses to be built here is allowing trouble for the future.

Councillor Tierney expressed the view that officers, experts and the applicant are trying to suggest that this is not true but they are wrong and he feels in a few years time when these houses are all completely flooded and hundreds of people are devastated and have huge expenses,  ...  view the full minutes text for item P14/25

To agree and sign the confidential minutes of the meeting of 14 May 2025.

The confidential minutes of the 14 May 2025 were agreed and signed as an accurate record.