A DEVELOPER believes that building houses on a site in Cwmtillery will solve flooding issues there.

In September 2020, D3 Developments were given planning permission by Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s planning committee to build 28 houses at land east of Hillcrest View in Cwmtillery.

A water course runs beneath the site in a culvert.

Between 2001 to 2003, 34 council houses were demolished there. These had suffered from damp and water penetrating the buildings.

Nearby residents have been up in arms about the application for more than a year, and have set up Hillcrest View Action Group to campaign against the scheme.

Before last year’s meeting many objections were lodged with the council, pointing out that the site had flooding and drainage issues and even a Japanese Knotwood problem.

The group complained about the process, claiming they have been kept in the dark over the development.

The fear residents have is that flooding could cause a landslide.

These concerns had been echoed at the planning meeting.

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According to the minutes of that meeting nearly a year ago on September 3, a councillor did put forward a motion to reject the application, but this was not supported.

Nearly a year later, there is still no sign of building work starting.

David Williams, one of D3 Developments directors, has explained that “everything is being” done to ensure the development addresses flooding concerns.

Mr Williams said: “It does flood, water comes from the mountain to the culvert, it is in a terrible state of repair.

“We have agreed to put in a new headwall and a pipe all the way through to the road.

“We propose to stop that flooding by putting attenuation tanks (that collects excess water) and new land drainage.

“For some reason people think we’ll make it worse rather than better.

“This land was bought from the local authority as residential development land, everything we have been asked to do, we have done.”

On larger building schemes, developers now have to apply for approval of plans to deal with land drainage. These are called SUDs applications.

And until that application is approved by Blaenau Gwent’s Sustainable Drainage Approval Body (SAB), the development can’t move forward.

Mr Williams said: “Where we have hit a hurdle and applied several times for SUDs drainage approval.

“But before we get to that we need an ordinary watercourse consent and we’ve been to-ing and fro-ing for the last 11 months on this.

“As soon as we get them signed off, we’ll start to build, and we’ll sort out the drainage as a starting point.

“We can’t have it flooding with houses on it, by developing the land will make it better and not worse.”

Mr Williams stressed: “This will all be done properly.”

A spokesman for Blaenau Gwent said: “A revised SUDs application is currently being assessed and a decision date will be dependent upon the revised application and whether an extension of time is required.”