Three-bed house approved for old playground that 'flooded three times last winter'

A house is set to be built on a former playground that ‘flooded three times last winter’ after a council leader said the county’s flood agency acted like ‘Pontius Pilate’. Villagers in Hoby say the proposals for a detached three-bedroom house and double garage off Brooksby Road would be a ‘blot on the landscape’, and that the land has a history of flooding.

At a Melton Borough Council plans committee meeting last week, council leader Councillor Pip Allnatt compared Leicestershire County Council, the lead local flood authority (LLFA), to biblical figure Pontius Pilate, who washed his hands while announcing he was not responsible for Jesus's death. Coun Allnatt said the county council had 'washed their hands' of responsibility by saying to the borough council that 'the proposed development is not considered a major application and therefore the LLFA is not a statutory consultee for this application and offers no comment'.

However, a Leicestershire County Council spokesperson told LeicestershireLive: “We are the ‘lead local flood authority’ (LLFA) which means we have responsibility as a consultee on major planning applications which are more than 10 homes or larger than one hectare. For more minor applications, it is the planning authority, in this case Melton Borough Council, which is responsible for assessing them and can choose to obtain specialist advice to support.

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“Where possible, we will support the planning authority and in this instance, we advised the borough council that due to river and stream flood risk, it should refer to the Environment Agency's standing advice which offers further guidance for applications such as this. For the Leader of the borough council to claim that the County Council ‘washed its hands’ of the matter is simply wrong.”

Hoby with Rotherby Parish Council had objected to the plans, saying: “The piece of land where this amended application relates to has flooded three times this winter, the most recent being on April 28 2024 when three other properties were flooded in the village of Hoby from the stream flooding.” There were 35 objections to the application, with villagers sending photos of the flooded land to the borough council.

But there was support for the application, with three people sending positive comments to the council, praising the ‘tasteful development’ and pointing out the site is considered to be low risk for flooding by the Environment Agency. At the meeting, Jacqueline Jackson from Marrons spoke on behalf of applicant Jack Wilkins, calling it a ‘high quality detached family house’, and claiming the building won’t be on an area of the land that floods.

But ward Councillor Ronan Browne argued ‘Hoby village is not sustainable’, adding that there are dozens of houses being built in other nearby villages which he said are sustainable. Coun Allnatt said: “The major issue is the flooding issue where once again our hands are a little bit tied because the county flood agency has done a Pontius Pilate and washed their hands really and I’ve no doubt they’ve claimed these rather Kafkaesque rules that they can’t get involved because it’s not a major development.”

He added: “I’m not comfortable. I’m not really happy with supporting the application because of the flooding issue. I would like to see at least more conditions put on it so it can be stopped if it can be demonstrably shown it is imperilling the community in the way it’s being described.”

During the discussion, councillors decided to add an additional planning condition and amend an existing one. The new condition requires the application to provide the council with existing and proposed ground and floor levels for the scheme, ‘to ensure the development minimises the risk of flooding elsewhere and to safeguard against averse effects on the landscape character of the area’.

The amended condition concerns foul and surface water, with the new wording requiring the applicant to demonstrate the scheme will not increase the risk of flooding elsewhere. Councillor James Mason said he thought the new condition 'gets us some of the way there', but said he had 'severe reservations'. He added: “The site is very boggy."

While Councillor Margaret Glancy said: “I’ve sat through a lot of planning applications in my time, and it seems we’re sitting here tonight trying to make this fit and that to me is wrong. We’re having to add condition and alter conditions to make sure we get what we think it says on the packet and that to me is ultimately wrong.”

Councillors voted to approve the application with the additional and amended conditions. Although the number of councillors who voted for and against was not announced, it was not a unanimous decision.

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