Bid to stop extra Puxton homes

7:00am Thursday 7th August 2008

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PLANS for a Midlands-based property company to build 73 homes next to a Kidderminster marsh have come under fire from a councillor who believes it will impact on flooding.

The application, submitted by A & J Mucklow, includes a request for internal roads, car parking and landscaping on land off Puxton Drive.

Labour Worcestershire county councillor, Nigel Knowles, wants the scheme thrown out, as he says the homes will be built on a flood plain in Puxton Marsh.

He fears that existing homes in the Puxton and Marlpool areas could be in danger of flooding if the plans are given the green light.

Mucklow has already been given permission to build 46 dwellings on the land but now wants to include an extra 27.

Mr Knowles is arguing that the Government’s advice not to build on flood plains should be considered before the homes are built.

David Folkes, director of Mucklow, however, denied the homes would be put up on the flood plain.

He said: “The flood plain is on the marshland itself and this site we want to build on is on land next to the marsh.

“It was left over when Mucklow’s were developing the site in the 1970s.”

Despite this, Mr Knowles, is urging nearby residents to oppose the plans, based on changing environmental priority and risk issues.

“The nature of the flooding in 2007 strongly suggests climate change could result in more future flooding in England,” he said.

“People living in the Marlpool area should write in to Wyre Forest District Council and object to the plans.

“Since Mucklow’s first application there are now changing environmental risks. With the very nature of the way we are living, I think the whole area is more likely to be one that gets flooded.

“What I want to happen is for the planners to throw the plans out because of new environmental risks.”

Mr Folkes said: “There’s already a fully detailed planning permission for 46 houses on that land, which we started three years ago and it can’t be removed.

“It’s outside the flood plain and we have notification from the Environment Agency to say so.

“If we were building in Puxton Marsh we would never have been given permission.”