'Worsening rainfall' must be considered for new home plans, says Ellesmere councillor

An Ellesmere councillor believes current rainfall figures should be taken into consideration when considering housing applications.

Last month, Shropshire Council's Northern Planning Committee approved a proposal for 40 new homes off Teal Drive.

Both Ellesmere Town Council and Shropshire Councillor Rosie Radford (Lib Dems, Ellesmere Urban) objected, with flooding issues being one of the reasons.

Speaking at a town council meeting on Monday (November 2), Councillor Geoff Elner said that Severn Trent quote figures based on 100 years of rainfall.

"The current rainfall is not following that trend - it's getting worse and worse," he said.

"The figures they are using for the last 100 years are not going to be the same for the next 50 years, or 10 years. Because there's a damn sight more rainfall now than there was ever before, and that needs to be taken into consideration."

Referring specifically to the Teal Drive scheme, Councillor Elner added: "We all now that land has flooded historically and nothing has been done about it. And now it's going to flood even more."

The Mayor of Ellesmere, Councillor Pete Jones, attended the planning meeting, and reiterated that measures will be put in place to make flooding events "less bad".

Councillor Radford added that Severn Trent is a consultee and state whether it thinks the drainage is sufficient or not.

"I am no expert, but I'm well aware of the history and you will no know my thoughts when I went to committee," she said.

"I would suggest from a town council point of view, you can certainly lobby Severn Trent and the flood defence guy who came and spoke to you.

"We've had three large planning applications and our infrastructure has not changed. While our highways are slowly getting fixed, other things are still there."

Councillor Radford added that she has also lobbied the local schools about their current capacity.

"At the moment, the primary school is suggesting they have spaces, so there's very little you can do until which they're saying they haven't," she said.

"And in terms of the doctor's surgery, they believe they've got enough appointments."