Highland Council flood risk management team drop objection to Prestige Properties Highland’s plans for 14 homes at Auldearn
Flood risk officers have withdrawn their objection to plans for a new housing development in Auldearn.
Prestige Properties Highland lodged an application last June to build 14 houses at Meadowfield Farm, which sits on the Moyness road to the east of the village.
But the development sparked local concerns, with flood risks raised by nearby residents and also by Auldearn Community Council, with its chairman Roger Milton stating that, although the new proposal would tidy up a site “that has become somewhat of an eyesore”, it was also “an area of natural ponds and wetland that regularly causes road flooding combining with poor natural drainage”.
He added that any development would need “a carefully designed solution to these threats” but that this “is not presently obvious on the plans”.
And those fears were initially shared by Highland Council’s flood risk management team too, who lodged an objection late last year unless the developer could show that sufficient steps were in place to lower the risk and manage any drainage concerns.
It appears these conditions have now been met after a fresh letter was submitted by the flood risk management team withdrawing its objections after layout changes were made and further information provided.
The team said: “The team welcomes the latest, revised layout proposals and the applicant’s latest on-site investigations which address [our] flood risk concerns.”
Their letter added that the new information showed that “proposed land raising” will not reduce the volume of flood water the ground could hold and that “it appears that the proposals will not increase flood risk to the neighbouring property”.
They continued: “As part of the new site layout, the former swale is no longer proposed. This is acceptable as it will reduce the likelihood of the present water storage immediately discharging to the adjacent burn and subsequently causing flooding to others.”
And they added that Prestige Properties Highland had provided evidence showing that the existing drain in the area of pluvial flooding “still flows” after it deployed coloured dye to track it. They said they would therefore not object “to a ‘like-for-like’ replacement” with the same capacity or to the alternative route that it is proposed to follow.
Moving on to their previous drainage concerns, the team said “[we are] satisfied with the latest network and hydrobrake information” but added that it was recommending a condition be attached that a “finalised Drainage Impact Assessment (DIA)” be carried out before any construction.
If that is attached, the team said they would have no objection there.
However, although the council’s flood risk management team have withdrawn their objections, the development is still subject to a formal objection by the local authority’s forestry officers over plans to fell a number of trees.
Back in October they warned that the housing “would result in adverse impacts on native trees of potentially high biodiversity value” and that the proposals also offered insufficient protection to other trees on the site.
It is also unclear if the layout changes and new flood risk information provided by the developer will also assuage the concerns of the local community.
As well as their flooding fears they also cited issues about increased traffic on the Moyness road and also about the pressure the new housing could place on Auldearn School, which they said “is reaching a maximum pupil roll”.
