Sunday, September 7, 2008
One rule for one - a different rule for another?
The heavy rain over the past few days as certainly caused a major amount of flooding both in this area and wider a field. Having been stopped from driving along Long Lane towards Derrington and then prevented getting into Seighford from Doxey last night I began to wonder just what was happening to the River Sow in Stafford.
This morning I took a quick tour round the town centre and although the water was not as high as it was last year there were still problems. Firstly Sainsbury’s car-park was closed as the entrance was underwater, but perhaps more worrying was that the river had burst its bank by the site of the old Riverside Centre and the old Tesco car-park. This really set me wondering why the proposed development on the old Riverside site had not meet with more opposition from the Environment Agency as the site is obviously in a floodplain. To make matters worse in the first application for the new shopping, cinema, and apartment complex the plans included an underground which would have been well underwater with today’s floods.
The Environment Agencies apparent lack of interest in this site must be compare with an application they objected to in Seighford. In this case the application was made by a private householder who wanted to build a small domestic extension. However because his house was next to the Millian Brook the Agency objected to the plan and said there was a chance the new building might flood. On this basis the Planning Offers were about to refused the application befire the owner withdrew his plan. However as the house stands on slight rise above the nearby village if this new extension flooded Seighford would be under many feet of water!
One has to ask why there appears to be different rules, or is it the fact that the application in Stafford is from a big developer and backed up to the hilt by the Council, while the domestic extension in Seighford is being made by an ordinary member of the public?
This morning I took a quick tour round the town centre and although the water was not as high as it was last year there were still problems. Firstly Sainsbury’s car-park was closed as the entrance was underwater, but perhaps more worrying was that the river had burst its bank by the site of the old Riverside Centre and the old Tesco car-park. This really set me wondering why the proposed development on the old Riverside site had not meet with more opposition from the Environment Agency as the site is obviously in a floodplain. To make matters worse in the first application for the new shopping, cinema, and apartment complex the plans included an underground which would have been well underwater with today’s floods.
The Environment Agencies apparent lack of interest in this site must be compare with an application they objected to in Seighford. In this case the application was made by a private householder who wanted to build a small domestic extension. However because his house was next to the Millian Brook the Agency objected to the plan and said there was a chance the new building might flood. On this basis the Planning Offers were about to refused the application befire the owner withdrew his plan. However as the house stands on slight rise above the nearby village if this new extension flooded Seighford would be under many feet of water!
One has to ask why there appears to be different rules, or is it the fact that the application in Stafford is from a big developer and backed up to the hilt by the Council, while the domestic extension in Seighford is being made by an ordinary member of the public?
# posted by Barry Stamp @ 4:25 PM 
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