It had occurred to me before actually. The property developer was
brought to task by other residents over several issues, including
flooding. Basically they built the entire site on a known ancient
floodplain, and within the first year nearly every house was under 3ft
of water. They then "diverted the source upstream", but still the
flooding came. Eventually the council took drastic action to dam the
source, and we haven't seen any flooding since.

Everyone round here is aware that the developers are a bunch of cowboys.
The state of our 'new' houses when we moved into them was pitiful, so it
didn't really surprise me to discover we were sitting on top of a clay
pit. I was angry, but not surprised.


and you blame all of this on the builders?

Who gave them Planning Permission? They may be 'Cowboys', but they didn't
give themselves Planning Permission. Perhaps you were not there at the time,
but were any objections lodged? Not only have I had a planning application
for a couple of blocks of flats turned down because of possible flooding if
the development went ahead, but I have caused the Council to withdraw a
large chunk of land they wishes to sell for building on, off the market
because of possible flooding. The two houses opposite me flooded to above
skirting board level 4 times in the first 16 years I was here. "Nothing can
be done, its the lay of the land" so said the Council and the Water
Authority. I fought to have the road surface re-aligned so the water could
run down the road instead of down their drives and flood them.

Sorry, you can't blame it all on the builders. Blame the Council, the owners
of the land and the people around for not shouting out in the first place.

Mike

Mike wrote:

It had occurred to me before actually. The property developer was
brought to task by other residents over several issues, including
flooding. Basically they built the entire site on a known ancient
floodplain, and within the first year nearly every house was under 3ft
of water. They then "diverted the source upstream", but still the
flooding came. Eventually the council took drastic action to dam the
source, and we haven't seen any flooding since.

Everyone round here is aware that the developers are a bunch of cowboys.
The state of our 'new' houses when we moved into them was pitiful, so it
didn't really surprise me to discover we were sitting on top of a clay
pit. I was angry, but not surprised.


and you blame all of this on the builders?

Who gave them Planning Permission?

Well there's obviously several people to blame; the council for granting
the planning permission; the developers for going ahead despite knowing
that the area was a floodplain; and the residents for not voicing their
concerns loudly enough.

We weren't here when the development kicked off, and didn't know anyone
in the area. Also, because it was a new property (and for various
reasons we were in a hurry), we made the fatal mistake of not hiring a
surveyor; we took our solicitors word, and that of the developer, that
the property was sound. It was a bit of a rush job, due to us losing our
deposit on another property from the same developer (which was later
honoured anyway, at their discretion, on the new property), and failing
to sell our old house in time for the purchase of the new one. In
retrospect, we should have got a bridging loan and taken more time, but
it's easy to say that now.

To give you an idea of how dodgy this whole affair is: about a year
after moving in we got talking to the local butcher, who said that the
developers had come calling one day to ask about the area (a sort of
questionnaire). The butcher replied that the area was a floodplain, and
had been for centuries. The developer replied, and I quote our butcher,
"Oh, we don't want to hear that", and apparently he wasn't smiling when
he said it.

I think you'll find that the developers made some kind of false
assurances to the council WRT dealing with the flood problem. That would
also have allayed any objections raised by the public.

Maybe they really did intend to deal with the flooding, but like
everything else these developers do, didn't pull their thumbs out and do
it quickly enough (they are still building further up the street - 5
years behind schedule).

Here's another example: the bridge over the river which divides us from
the rest of the world, was grossly inadequate, and became impassable
during the flooding. Essentially it was just a dip in the road, made of
solid concrete and had a small drainage pipe shoved through it. Two
years, and two major floods later, it was still there. It took court
action to force them to replace it with a real bridge, which they have
finally done.

Anyway, I'm sure the council share the responsibility for this mess, but
equally there are a mountain of faults that the developers are
responsible for, not least of which is the clay pit I'm sitting on.

-
[H]omer

Anyway, I'm sure the council share the responsibility for this mess,


with regards to giving planning permission, there is no 'share' about it.
Unless they can prove that they did not give planning consent ???? and
unless they can prove in writing that the Builder/Developer was/is going to
do something about the flooding, then the ball is in their court and I would
need a lot of convincing that is not the case.

Of course from here I cannot fully grasp the situation, but I feel that a
Residents Action Committee should have been started a long time ago to fling
more than the proverbial 'Seven Buckets of the nasty stuff' at them.

You might be interested to know that when I was shouting out so much about
the Council and fighting for the residents, that at a meeting, it was
explained that 'There is a vacancy on the Parish Council would you like to
join us?' The neighbours who were being affected by the flooding urged me to
go on and fight for them. I was co-opted on. THEN realised I was on there to
shut me up. Consequently I am not standing for re-election in May.

Are your houses built under the National House Builders Council or whatever
it is called? Whereby your houses are examined at each stage of build and a
20(?) year guarantee placed on them?

Mike

Mike wrote:

Are your houses built under the National House Builders Council or whatever
it is called? Whereby your houses are examined at each stage of build and a
20(?) year guarantee placed on them?

No idea. All we were told was that we had one year to complain about any
faults with the property, which we did ... over and over ... along with
every other resident on the estate.

E.g. - the gas, which was supposed to be plumbed-in *before* we entered
the premises, wasn't. We complained. Two weeks later, they finally fixed
it. Problems outstanding from before the end of the one year 'warranty'
period remain unfixed (by them) to this day.

It wasn't that we didn't complain, it was just that the developer didn't
care, and the local councillor cared even less. AFAIK half the council
are drinking buddies with the partners in the development firm.

Anyway, it's seven years later and this is way OT. A lifetime's worth of
more important event have occured in the meantime (such as my father's
demise), and the whole thing is just too depressing to dredge up again.
So from my end anyway, this thread is closed.

-
[H]omer

In article , [H]omer
writes

In
retrospect, we should have got a bridging loan and taken more time, but
it's easy to say that now.

And perhaps looked at the OS map for the area and compared the height of
your property with the height of the river? But as you say, hindsight is
a wonderful thing.


--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

In message , Kay
writes
In article , [H]omer
writes

In
retrospect, we should have got a bridging loan and taken more time, but
it's easy to say that now.

And perhaps looked at the OS map for the area and compared the height of
your property with the height of the river? But as you say, hindsight is
a wonderful thing.


And I guess 7 years ago there was not quite so much awareness of the
building on flood plain /flooding issues anyway.

Our new (almost anyway) house down south is on a hill, though it is
Cambridgeshire hill so about 10m above sea level :-), so maybe an island
in 50 years :-)

--
Chris French and Helen Johnson, Leeds
urg Suppliers and References FAQ:
http://www.familyfrench.co.uk/garden/urgfaq/index.html