Housing may win approval despite flood fear

The 200 houses will be built along with a primary school as part of a 10-year development at Brough South which will eventually total 750 homes.

A relief road linking Moor Road to Skillings Lane has also been bought forward as part of the scheme, which will eventually include a food store, health facilities, business premises, and hotel and which was given outline planning consent last October.

It comes despite concerns about traffic and flooding from both the river Humber which runs past the site and from the hills.

Part of the land, which is protected by flood defences, was inundated on December 5 when the tidal surge rolled into the Humber and some of the highest tide levels in 60 years were recorded.

The new houses will be built on a raised platform but Elloughton-cum-Brough parish council’s chairman Bryan Davis said he was concerned that would shift the problem elsewhere.

He said: “It is barmy, they are talking about raising the level of the land 8ft which will mean bringing in thousands of wagon loads of soil in.

“Most of the flooding in the area which we have had over the last 40, 50 years comes from the hills, Elloughton Dale, Brantingham Dale, Welton Dale. The flooding invariably does not come from the river, it comes from the hills.

“I have heard from no one with local knowledge that it is a good idea. The men who used to work at the factory and stroll round the airfield at lunch-tine would say even in fairly dry summer conditions you would get your feet wet.”

Mr Davis said the major concern, however, was traffic congestion and that a roundabout being built to replace traffic lights wouldn’t alleviate the problems: “It’s on the wrong side of our community. You have to come through Elloughton Brough to get to Aerospace. We are at choking point with traffic in the morning as it is.”

The last Hawk jet trainer, used by the RAF, flew out from the site in 2011. Mr Davis said men in their 40s and 50s who had been made redundant from the site were sad to see what was happening, and although new business uses were being developed for the site, which is part of the Enterprise Zone, many jobs would be “white van man” posts, which wouldn’t replace the highly-skilled, well-paid jobs of yesteryear.

Developer Redrow Homes say in the event of a similar flood, the water would be contained between the bank and the raised platform.

In a statement technical director for Redrow Homes (Yorkshire) David Faraday said: “Our proposals are in line with the outline application and have been approved by the Environment Agency.”

The Environment Agency said the land had flooded because a flap had been “interfered with” and left open in their new flood defence embankment.

He said: “The Environment Agency has commented on flood risk elements of the design, and are continuing to work with the developer to ensure that the development is safe from flooding, and does not increase flood risk to others. The proposed development site will be provided on a raised platform, and therefore the recent tidal surge would not have affected any part of the site.

“We recently met on site to discuss the tidal event, and it seems that the surge only affected a small part of the site. This was due to a flap valve on our new flood defence embankment being interfered with and kept open, allowing water to pass through it when it should not have been able to do so. Our new flood embankment should offer protection to the development site, when operating as designed.”