The Cranleigh Society has written to object to the Horsham Road FULL planning application by Crest Nicholson.
You can still add your own objections here too:
Application by Crest Nicholson for full planning ref WA/2016/0417 for phase one 149 dwellings on Land At 106 And The Chantrys Bungalow And Land To SW Of Horsham Road, Cranleigh available on the Waverley Borough Council Planning Portal.
We would like to place The Cranleigh Civic Society’s objection against WA/2016/0417 (Land at 106 and The Chantreys Bungalow and Land to the SW of Horsham Road, Cranleigh).
Firstly, we object to the raising of the ground level on the Northern Boundary of the site. This will have a detrimental effect on existing properties and lead to a further loss of privacy, as well as increase the risk of flooding on the Hitherwood Estate which is at a lower point. The attenuation ponds are all positioned on the northern edge of the site, should these SuDS fail there will be a catastrophic effect on neighbouring properties. This proposal appears to channel all surface water flow towards these existing properties.
It is also ridiculous to state that as in point “4.6. As it is proposed to limit all rainfall events to the Qbar greenfield runoff rate, it is not necessary to provide long term storage within the surface water drainage network.” of the Ardent report, as it has been proven time and time again that current greenfield rates already lead to surface water flooding of adjacent properties and the flow cannot currently be accommodated.
Flooding occurred in adjacent properties in in Dec 2013, Jan 2014 and Jan 2016. Although we see no mention of the latest flooding in this document. Savills letter dated 19 April 2016 states that they are “not aware of any flood data being available for the 2013, as it was a local event”. This is simply untrue this flooding covered almost the entire Wey Catchment and Thames River Basin.
On the grounds that this will increase flooding elsewhere, we object to the discharge of surface water from the site into Holdhurst Brook and the widening of the brook without consultation with the Environment Agency (EA). We cannot find reference to the EA approving this strategy. The Environment Agency have confirmed that Cranleigh is a flashy catchment and as such our rivers and streams respond very quickly to rainfall, the flow of water rising rapidly to a high peak and liable to flooding similarly, leading to a complete loss of flow at time of minimal rainfall.
The foul water pumping station is not situated in the centre of the site as stated in point “5.1. It is proposed to drain foul sewer from the development to a pumping station located in the centre of the site towards the northern boundary. The foul water would be pumped out to the existing Thames Water sewer beneath Horsham Road.” But is situated on the northern boundary of the site and adjacent to existing properties, clearly outlined in Appendix D of the Ardent report. This will lead to constant noise pollution from the pump, especially as this appears to be a wet well, and the noise and disruption of tankers when pumping out is required, in addition to unpleasant odours adversely affecting residential amenity. In addition to this we believe there should be a buffer zone between the SuDS attention pond and the pumping station to guard against raw sewage entering the adjacent pond and adjacent watercourse.
We also do not agree that 88m3 is adequate onsite sewage storage capacity calculated for the development and will lead to sewage flooding in times of heavy rainfall when the sewers quickly and regularly become overwhelmed with surface water. Properties on the Horsham Road and Cromwell Place already are known to suffer from foul water flooding in their gardens, which has been reported to Thames Water.
Finally we object to the building of 2.5 storey properties on this site as the height is not at all “sympathetic to its context” and contrary to the Cranleigh Design Statement 2008.
You can read more about the Crest Nicholson application in our previous articles:
CRANLEIGH RESIDENTS FEEL LET DOWN
THAMES WATER SEWAGE CRISIS IN CRANLEIGH
CREST NICHOLSON HORSHAM ROAD GRANTED
CREST NICHOLSON MEETING WITH THE CRANLEIGH SOCIETY
CREST NICHOLSON SITE FLOODS WITHIN WEEKS!
