Park homes plan timed out
Plans to put nine more park homes on a site in a built up part of Telford have been refused after planners decided that the applicants had run out of time to resolve outstanding drainage objections.
Agents working for Sovereign Parks, of Wolverhampton had been granted one extension of official time limits after they had applied to Telford & Wrekin Council for permission to extend the site at Homelands Park, at Mossey Green, in Ketley Bank.
But emails between the planning department and the agents on the council’s portal reveal that an attempt to agree an extension of time to August 8 was turned down. If the issues can be resolved the applicants will be able to try again with a new application.
The agent wrote: “I would suggest an extension of time be agreed until Friday August 8, 2025 but am equally happy to agree longer, if that would
provide more comfort about being able to complete the remaining parts of the process.”
But the planners did not agree and an official wrote back: “I have been authorised to agree an extension of time until Friday August 1.
“However, I have been advised that should the matter not be addressed by this point, a refusal will be issued and a further extension of time will not be granted.”
Planning documents reveal that the sticking point had been over where the applicants were going to connect foul and surface water drainage to the public network.
“Officers are unaware as to how the surface water drainage system will connect into the public service water network,” reads a council assessment.
They said that a proposed pond/basin was full and a one-in-100 year rainfall event happened “water may leave the pond and flood the site.”
“The proposed drainage scheme has not demonstrated that it would be able to accommodate future heavy rainfall events, due to the lack of an identified outfall,” council officials wrote.
“The proposed drainage scheme also fails to demonstrate that there is an agreed point of connection to the public foul sewerage network, and as such raises significant concerns over the presence of stagnant water.”
Planners added that the council has ” acted positively and proactively” by identifying matters of concern with the proposal and raising those with the applicant/agent.
“However, in this case it has not been possible to arrive at a satisfactory resolution.”
Drainage engineers at the council’s Environmental Services department had said that due to the presence of shallow mine works and a mine shaft within the site, infiltration “must not be used” as the method to dispose of surface water.
Background papers submitted with the application say that the most recent underground working in the area was in 1900.
