Calls to pause housing developments in a Nottinghamshire village have been made after a "muddy washout" hit people's gardens and businesses in a Nottinghamshire village. It comes after the local Co-op and a couple of roads had to shut in Burton Joyce after heavy rain has seen flooding in the area.
Councillor Sam Smith, chief whip of the Conservative group in Gedling Borough Council, representing the Trent Valley Ward, has blamed the recent developments for the "brown waterfalls" that hit the community. In a letter, he has asked Gedling Borough Council's Head of the Planning Department and Chief Executive to take "immediate enforcement action" to pause the housing developments until "adequate drainage systems are installed".
This will help prevent further muddy washouts, he explained. Speaking to Nottinghamshire Live, he added: "The fact that there is no drainage system on those new housing developments means it is going to result into the same outcome as it did. It is disgraceful."
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He claimed that he has raised his concerns before over the development at Orchard Close, "before and throughout the planning process". He said: "The way I screamed as a Borough councillor from the rooftops about the impact that this will have on flooding in Burton Joyce is not nimbyism. It is just common sense.
"If you build concrete over green space, particularly on a hillside, you are going to create water runoff that is going to flood current properties. It just left the development on a pile of mud, there is no drainage so when it rains all that mud and mortar flips into properties."
He added: "We will have the same result in Burton Joyce every time it rains it will be washed away with muddy waterfalls because of these housing developments. Businesses had to shut including a chip shop and the post office. The Co-op was washed away on Thursday. The rural area has been impacted heavily, including people's garages and houses, and businesses."
Margaret Barrett of Orchard Close, said she has lived in Burton Joyce for 50 years. She added: "We have lived in the village all of our lives so we have seen lots of changes. We do not have any issues with the housing developments, we accept that there is a need for more housing.
"But it was all very predictable that it was going going to flood. The whole road was a sea of mud on Thursday.
"There is no question that it has had a major impact. It came down four drives on the road, it came down the whole of the road and it was fairly predictable.
"So there were four drives on the road and also the garages or sheds that were affected with dirty muddy water just running down on them. There has always been a tendency to flood on the road in Burton Joyce. But in the past, it has always been just water.
"And that was made worse when new houses were built. It made it worse because they are taking away the ground that will soak the water. So that was inevitable - but it is absolutely horrendous."
A Gedling Borough Council spokesperson said: "On Thursday, large parts of the borough and the county saw extremely high levels of rainfall, causing flooding across several areas. We have been working with colleagues at Nottinghamshire County Council, who are responsible for the countywide response to flooding, and provided support for households who were in imminent danger of flooding, providing sandbags to several homes.
"Our road sweepers had recently been out to the affected areas, as part of the normal cleaning cycle and were back out again on Friday clearing up debris and will continue to do so over the next few days. We have also been made aware of complaints raised about a nearby housing development, our planning team will investigate any complaints and speak to the developers to ensure they are working in accordance with the planning permissions.”
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