Flooding, leaky sewers and polluted rivers are depressing part of life for Newbold residents as yet more planning applications are considered

New houses are being built while sewer infrastructures are at or near capacity adding to catastrophic flooding and river pollution, say frustrated residents.

Over the past couple of years, the Herald has covered numerous examples of streets flowing with raw sewage, pensioners’ gardens deluged by faecal matter and homes flooded as new houses put a strain on sewers in places such as Shipston, Ilmington and Cherrington.

Despite residents of Mill Lane in Newbold smelling a river of effluent flowing past their houses and seeing increased flooding, they are currently locked into fighting planning applications for nine more houses, where the developer maintains everything is rosy, and that new houses won’t be a problem.

Mill Lane is a narrow rutted gravelly lane that leads down to a bend in the River Stour. Stella and Michael Khan have lived in one of the riverside houses for a couple of decades. While the Stour has occasionally burst its banks in those years, so far in 2024 they have endured four huge floods.

“We are now flooded very regularly. It has got much worse since 35 new houses, The Martingales development, were built at the top of the lane. Initially planning was refused by the Stratford District Council, but then it was overturned by the planning inspectorate, who said yes it can go ahead if they've got the right sort of drainage and permeable membrane. That never happened and there’s no enforcement – and it’s too late anyway – people have moved in.”

Just recently, from Wednesday, 28th February, Severn Trent spent nine days tackling raw sewage being pumped uncontrollably into the Stour from a CSO (combined sewage outlet) on the Khan’s property.

Mrs Khan is part of a river-pollution monitoring project – which has found shockingly high levels of phosphates and the nitrates in both the Avon and Stour.

She explained: “I went to the river to do my weekly on that Wednesday and saw masses of faeces and toilet paper being flushed into the Stour.

“Severn Trent engineers spent nine days on our ground with a jet washing tanker.

“We’ve previously been told by engineers that they can’t believe that more houses have put it being put on to this system. But no one in authority is listening to us.”

The Khans and other Newbold residents attended a planning meeting in January where an application for four of the houses was turned down – but only because the proposed houses encroached over the village’s permitted building boundary, not because of flooding and sewage concerns.

“It was frustrating because even though I gave all this evidence about the increased flooding and sewage contamination, I was not listened to because I am not an ‘expert’.”

Meanwhile the committee had no choice but to take a flood risk assessment commissioned by the developer, CE Gilbert, into account.

Furthermore since no objections had been lodged by Severn Trent, councillors had no choice but to believe there wasn’t a worry over infrastructure being at capacity.

Since that January meeting frustrated residents have spent £2,000 employing their own expert hydrologist to scrutinise the findings of the Gilbert flood risk report.

“Our hydrologist found the developer’s report used completely outmoded software modelling and data,” explained Mrs Khan.

Now she has the evidence, she’s at a loss to know what to do with it – except wait for the Gilbert’s appeal on the refused application to once again go before the planning committee.

But Mrs Khan fears the worst. “You can go to the public planning meeting and show your videos, and data, and you're basically told you're not experts. Our objections might come to nothing, it’s weighted against us.

“We're officially told by the Environment Agency and Severn Trent that there are no problems, therefore go ahead and build. And this is happening over and over again. People send objections in and they come to nothing.”

Mrs Khan added: “The planning committee councillors aren’t experts either, and they are making huge decisions on recommendations of the planning officers, who only have the developer’s report. That’s unbelievable.”

The Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA) is Warwickshire County Council, who are charged with creating a flood risk management strategy that makes up the core strategy that informs decisions about building, etc, in Stratford district. Mrs Khan is angry that they aren’t being more proactive in tackling these crucial issues.

The LLFA is embarrassing they are not on the ball at all. Nobody is listening to anyone – it’s literally like ‘get the houses built and move on’, it’s incredibly frustrating.”

Councillor Olivia Hatch (Greens, Shipston North) says the problems are being echoed in Cherrington. “The river pollution levels are through the roof in Cherrington, where there have been problems with flooding and sewage. And the Seven Trent engineers on the ground there know what the problem is. They’ve told locals ‘until there's more infrastructure, don't build any more houses here’. But they're not just talking to the other bit of Seven Trent, who don't object to planning applications.”

However Severn Trent maintains that despite being listed by SDC as a ‘statutory consultee’ it does not have powers to rule on planning decisions.

It also maintains that the issues in Newbold are not connected to capacity.

A spokesperson said: “Severn Trent is often incorrectly named as a ‘statutory consultee’ on planning portals, this is not the case, and this means that legally we have no say in if a development can go ahead or not. What we can do is look into what impact any new developments may have on our network, and if there are any concerns, we can only object or ask for a planning application to be delayed so improvements to our network or treatment works are required and need to be carried out first.

“That said, we do understand the building of additional houses can be a concern to residents, so we are committed to make sure that any new development has no impact on the existing system. We work with developers to ensure the drainage they are constructing meets national standards and agree points of connection onto our network.

“We apologise for the recent incident at Newbold, which was the result of mechanical failure of a piece of equipment at our pump station. This has now been fixed and the station is operating as normal once again.”

Meanwhile Councillor Manuela Perteghella (Lib Dems, Welford) says the council is keen to see more done to tackle flooding and sewage issues facing residents.

“Fluvial and surface water flooding are happening more regularly in our district because of climate change,” Cllr Perteghella told the Herald. “That's why we are asking, through the motion we submitted to council, that the outdated modelling informing the Environment Agency maps and subsequent flood risk assessments is updated, that any new development must be fully scrutinised in its possible impact, especially with regards to surface water flooding.

“In the past I called for all surfaces in new developments (drives and footways for example) to be permeable, for multifunctional drainage solutions to be required, and most importantly for the Local Flood Authority (Warwickshire County Council) to adopt these sustainable drainage solutions in all new developments. This will ensure mitigation measures are high quality and working.

“Planning authorities can refuse planning consent where there is not adequate sewer to take foul drainage and they can ask for mitigation measures if development is going to add to surface water problems, but I understand they would take the advice of sewerage companies, or the Environment Agency, and of the Local Flood Authority. Therefore, if Severn Trent states they are not statutory consultees, then we need to ensure that the government gives them statutory status when responding to planning applications.”