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1. The application has been refused by East Hants District Council on the basis that the risk of groundwater flooding on the site has not been properly assessed. This is not quite the good news that it seems, as all our other objections have been dismissed by the planners, who have given their reasons, none of which we agree with.
2, The draft Refusal has also been sent to the secretary of state for housing communities and local government – Angela Rayner. If her department wishes to examine or overturn East Hants District Council’s refusal, they have until October 26th to do this. However, given that the refusal is based on technical flooding risk, they are highly unlikely to do this.
3 So, the refusal is likely to stand and this version of the planning application will be turned down. Redbrown have a number of options, one of which is to address the uncertainty around the groundwater on that site by conducting more monitoring over an extended period, likely to reach well into next year.
4. Holybourne’s next steps.
It is worth pointing out that, due to your efforts, this application received a truly unprecedented number of objections. Normally, objections number around 10 to 20. Holybourne residents have lodged well over Thirteen Hundred!. This level of objection is a powerful indicator of how controversial this proposal is.
Clearly, we don’t agree with their interpretation of our objections and are formulating a response and will update you all using our usual channels when we are ready.
We’ve won the battle, but not the war.
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The HVA planning sub committee have not ceased work on this development as it is not likely to end here. As and when further details and decisions arise, we will be actively studying and engaging will the appropriate bodies to ensure that we can robustly defend our position. We will post comments here when they become important to broadcast.
Hydrogeological survey being done in the Redbrown field.
They are doing two drills at corner of northern most field. When asked why not in the Streamacres field, he said – the equipment would sink, it’s too wet.
Very pleasant young hydrogeologist, he was happy to chat
They found (a lot of water in the NE corner) they decided to drill deeper thereL- 29 metres in that corner.
Holybourne Community Group Facebook PageThis is the link for the Holybourne Community Group.