Don’t be depressed by the changeable weather. It gives you good reason to keep a check on the forecasts from weather women such as Lucy from ITV.
Flamingo Land and flooding
August 12, 2019
By Nick Kempe
After my report on floods and flood prevention within our National Parks (see here), which included a brief postscript on Balloch in response to a reader’s comment, I have been sent more photos of flooding on the Old Luss Road, which runs under the Woodbank House part of the proposed Flamingo Land development.
The updated Design Statement Flamingo Land submitted with their revised Planning Application in April gave no indication there were any potential issues with flooding here:
Flamingo Land’s proposal for Woodbank House appears to be that the additional water run-off caused by the development – each time you build a house or a road it removes ground which could absorb rainfall or water draining from higher ground – should be discharged into existing water courses. As the photos show, these clearly do not have capacity to deal with existing water run-off.
In terms of the current box ticking approach to planning, there is nothing for the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority to worry about.
However, as Flamingo Land claims Scottish Water is supportive of their approach and Scottish Water in their response to the application on 30th April (see here) said they had NO objection to the application.
However, the SMALL print says something rather different.
“For reasons of sustainability and to protect our customers from potential future sewer flooding, Scottish Water will not accept any surface water connections into our combined sewer system”.
So, where is all the extra surface water draining from Woodbank going to go? Flamingo Land needs to explain this in a way that everyone can understand.
While Scottish Water states it has sufficient capacity in principle to supply water to the development from its Alexandria Water Treatment works, it cannot confirm whether there is sufficient capacity to treat foul water at the Ardoch Waste Water Treatment works and has asked for BOTH a Water Impact Assessment and a Drainage Impact Assessment.
Its not clear from the Planning Portal if Flamingo Land has completed these assessments but without them, and without Scottish Water’s response, its impossible to determine whether the development can be serviced or not.
Why the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority believe they are in a position to take a decision on the planning application before they are clear whether it can be supported by existing local infrastructure is not clear. Perhaps officers are going to recommend its refused because of a lack of adequate plans?
Local resident, Kenny Gibson, summed up the concerns about drainage and the Woodbank House part of the development in the objection he lodged in May:
“While my initial reaction was that Woodbank House was the least controversial part of the planning application, I now believe the lack of adequate plans for drainage coupled with the propensity of the area below it to flood are sufficient in themselves for the LLTNPA to reject the application for planning permission in principle.
“This is NOT sustainable economic development and the LLTNPA should have adopted a precautionary approach long ago.
Flooding at the Stoneymollan Round about near Balloch on the A82. Picture by Heather Scott Pick
The R Leven is not mentioned here. The concern is about flood protection for private properties…and, typically, they want the public to pay for it. Private interests shouldn’t be allowed to sponge from the public purse to inflate the value of their assets. Of course, they’ve got their solicitors, accountants and financial advisers working on it 24/7….and then they call the penniless unemployed, “spongers” and the MSM broadcast it because they don’t want to risk losing their advertising revenues. He who pays the piper calls the tune.
As I pointed out in my objection to the Flamingo Land application the main impact is on the R Leven which is treated as an open sewer. Following Labour’s “Environmental Improvements,” £ millions+ were spent on lining the R Leven with combined sewer outflows…so I can get to fish in a sea of everyone else’s shit and piss. When the system reaches capacity these CSOs discharge raw untreated sewage and surface waters straight into the river. Last time I checked there’s still a notice up downstream of the Boat Hole, on the tow path, thanking the now Lord McFall for the “great job” he did. No mention about the other “great job” he did with the banks.
So long as the usual ruling class suspects have their snouts in the trough nothing constructive is going to happen around here…especially in connection with flooding, flood prevention and flood risk management. For a start they are all aboard the “Extinction Rebellion” racket and the Green Industrial Revolution con. Thanks to my involvement with the fisheries I’ve known climate change existed since the 1980’s. The disaster is already happening and it’s been underway for the last 200 years. So, what’s the ruling class response? Turn it into a $ mega-trillion global business opportunity for investment bankers…but don’t let on about that…get this wee girl Greta to play the Pied Piper puppet-on-a-string. The consumers…aka MUGS….will take the bait, hook, line and sinker. That’s coming from the same people who butchered millions from here to Kabul. They don’t give a hoot about saving the planet or your kids’ future. It’s always the $$.