Flood risk fears over West Horndon home plans

PLANS to triple the size of a flood-prone village are "inadequately researched" and could result in greater risks for new and existing homes, warns one former Environment Agency advisor.

Brentwood Borough Council's Local Development Plan proposes 1,500 new homes be built in West Horndon by 2030 on two connected unused industrial estates and metropolitan green belt land.

The plans to build on an agricultural field to the west of Thorndon Avenue have been met with staunch protests from hundreds of residents of the village, which flooded in 1958, July 1981 and Christmas last year.

West Horndon parish councillor Colin Foan, a retired senior climate change advisor at the Environment Agency, began researching the flooding issues after the washout last Christmas which left homes damaged.

He says he can find no evidence the council has carried out enough, if any, assessment of drainage in the area, while his own research has left him "totally opposed" to any development on green belt land.

"The reason the drainage system didn't cope well at Christmas was because in this part of Essex the culverts in the flood alleviation scheme were not properly maintained. One was overgrown and blocked by trees, old tyres and so on.

"The water running off the high land of Thorndon Country Park has to go somewhere.

"The risk for the houses in Thorndon Avenue is already quite high and anything like the new development would be very likely to increase that risk.

"At the moment that field has a certain buffer drainage capacity but that will change if it is built on."

In May this year US engineering firm URS produced a sustainability appraisal study of the borough for the council, which made no mention of the flood risks in West Horndon.

An earlier council commissioned strategic flood risk assessment in January 2011 by UK based environmental and engineering consultancy Entec also failed to mention the risks in West Horndon.

Currently three culverts are in place to carry excess water away from under the railway line to the south of the village.

Maps available to the public on the Environment Agency's website show both West Horndon and nearby Bulphan to be at risk of flooding.

Mr Foan added: "The only way I could see they could safely build on the area would be to expand a drainage system that would allow the water to flow under the railway. But if you decrease the risk in West Horndon there's a chance you could increase the risk in Bulphan.

"You could then improve the drainage system at Bulphan but the cost of making sure that water makes it through to the Thames is likely to be high.

"I can't say for certain whether or not more culverts would prevent flooding to homes, but I suspect it would cause flooding in other areas like Bulphan."

There is also the possibility the LDP could have overlooked the existence of a protected species on the field.

Fellow parish councillor Kate Sibbald said: "We asked Essex Wildlife Trust if they could give us any information regarding what species are in the area. Unfortunately they don't have any complete records in that area.

"But we do know there are pipistrelle bats but we don't know if they are nesting here."

A ten-week public consultation ends on October 2. Visit brentwood.gov.uk or westhorndonparishcouncil.org.uk