Anglian Water and South Holland planners are at odds over planning permissions for new homes and stress on the network capacity.
The water company wants to impose blanket objections to applications where it says it can’t accommodate new links.
But South Holland District Council’s planners are being told the blanket approach is ‘inherently flawed given that each application must be determined on its own merits.’
A report due to go before the council’s Performance Monitoring Panel on Tuesday says the water company wants to impose a condition that would prevent development if there’s a shortage of network capacity.
“Anglian Water are increasingly suggesting that applications for development should be conditioned,” says the report.
“This new approach has resulted in a growing number of objections being registered to planning applications for residential development.
“In essence, Anglian Water made it plain that they were becoming more robust when responding to planning applications,” says the report.
Anglian Water proposes a Grampian Condition – which is a negative restriction to be met before work starts on a development.
“In general terms, conditions should not be overly burdensome,” says the report.
It also tells members that any sites allocated for housing within the local plan will not be refused permission because Anglian Water has concerns over the infrastructure.
“An objection raised by Anglian Water on the basis of network capacity will not be considered reasonable. In such circumstances the local planning authority will not consider the imposition of a condition.
“If there were genuine headroom or capacity concerns at site allocation stage, Anglian Water ought to have raised these concerns at the time,” it continues.
The water company has submitted its own report to the council which outlines its position within planning.
“Any development with planning permission has an automatic right to connect to our foul sewers,” it says.
“Statutory duties do not guarantee immediate capacity for all developments.”
Outlining current work, it says it removed around 4,400 wipes, which can create a blockage from the local network since August. It’s also planning to have a new reservoir near Sleaford fully operational in 2039 at the earliest.
“Over £28.6m planned investment in South Holland to deliver for customers and protect the environment,” it says.
There are plans for a new treated water tank at West Pinchbeck and storm reduction at Sutton Bridge.
The council proposes a ‘balanced’ way forward, including much more information from Anglian Water relating to each objection on non-allocated sites. Conditions may be added if enough evidence is presented. Grampian conditions will ‘not be considered appropriate.’
