Officials have called on Anglian Water to invest in its infrastructure so that South Holland’s needs can be catered for.
The utility firm has found itself at odds with South Holland District Council (SHDC) recently – with the local authority arguing that the company has failed to adequately invest in its network to ensure there is sufficient capacity to accommodate additional housing and to reduce the risk of leaks and flooding, writes Local Democracy Reporter Oliver Castle.
Water bosses have stressed that they are ‘committed’ to improving the company’s infrastructure and accommodating additional housing – but have vowed to object to new developments in the meantime.
Anglian Water’s objections can be overruled – and it has an obligation to connect properties whether it agrees or not.
At an SHDC performance monitoring panel on Wednesday, September 2, Coun Henry Bingham argued that Anglian Water has historically not spent enough money improving its water network – which has led to sewage overflowing onto the streets in some extreme cases.
He added: “In all honesty, it’s a private company that needs to invest in their own infrastructure.
“They’re very much aware of what we had allocated (for housing) in the local plan. We’re only half way through the local plan.
“Their historic lack of investment in their infrastructure shouldn’t stop South Holland from growing and shouldn’t stop people building houses and people having homes.
“Also, we should not expect to walk through our own sewage in the streets.”
Councillors wanted more information from Anglian Water in relation to where it has capacity in South Holland to cope with new houses.
Panel chairman Bryan Alcock also called for Anglian Water to provide more information on its capacity to accommodate new homes into its network.
He said: “I think the panel was hoping that Anglian Water was going to be able to tell us where there is capacity within the various treatment works and where we’re getting near to capacity.
“I appreciate now that we need to think about planning applications on the basis that we don’t want to be in a situation where we create development in particular areas and then there’s an environmental health problem as a result of it.
“So, I think we were hoping we were going to get a bit more information and clarity out of Anglian Water which would help the authority itself to know where it can actively encourage development if developers want to come along and develop the area and to discourage to some extent where there is no capacity.
“We were hoping for a bit more information really to assist the authority.”
This comes after SHDC recently established a robust response to Anglian Water in a bid to ensure the water company doesn’t get in the way of house building.
Officials said that if the water company raises concerns about a site which has already been allocated for development in the South and East Lincolnshire Local Plan (2019) and the East Lindsey Local Plan Core Strategy (2018), then this will not be considered reasonable.
Leaders said that Anglian Water should have provided the necessary infrastructure and improvements to sites which have already been allocated for development.
Officials said listening to objections from the utility firm would hinder the council’s ability to meet its five-year land supply target – and it is already falling behind this.
Anglian Water is increasingly requesting conditions are attached to new housing developments – urging that plans should not go ahead until it has given written confirmation to the council that there is sufficient capacity available.
However, SHDC leaders say that if Anglian Water makes an objection to an unallocated site, it will have to provide detailed evidence to prove that there is insufficient capacity and clear evidence that sufficient capacity will become available through network upgrades within three years of the planning application being approved.
If the company cannot do this, then officials said it will have to provide information on the possible means of effectively dealing with the treatment and disposal of waste water that were not ‘headroom’ dependent – such as on-site private waste treatment plants – otherwise the council will not consider these concerns to be reasonable.
The company has since provided a formal response to the council in which it argues it is doing everything it can to accommodate for additional housing.
In a statement, an Anglian Water spokesperson said that it doesn’t currently have any ‘additional information’ regarding the ‘level of available water capacity’ at its water recycling centres.
The spokesperson added: “We recognise that it would be helpful to express capacity in terms of a number of dwellings.
“However, we’ve found that this can be misleading, as wastewater impacts vary significantly depending on the type of development proposed.
“For example, employment, commercial and industrial developments can generate very different wastewater flows and loads compared to residential development, making a simple dwelling-based approach difficult to apply consistently.
“Capacity assessments are therefore considered on a case-by-case basis, taking account of the type and scale of development proposed, as well as the characteristics of the wastewater it is expected to generate.”
The spokesperson said the company recognises concerns about ‘wastewater capacity’ and its working with the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Environment Agency, Ofwat and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to address this issue.
The spokesperson added that Anglian Water ‘remains committed’ to working with local authorities to effectively plan for housing growth and infrastructure issues.
