The first houses have appeared at the new development off Twelve Acre Drive. They can seen near the sales office.
The developers plan to build a total of 371 homes in this phase, ranging from 2 to 5 bedrooms, with prices from £399,950 to £699,950 (as seen on their website). There will also be pavilions and sports pitches.
Since the development is near the Radley Park Ditch (shown in the bottom right corner of the image above), the developers have submitted a flooding model as a follow up to their planning permission.
There have been concerns about flooding downstream from the development, near the Peachcroft basketball pitch. A meeting last week of residents and local councillors were given updates on the flooding on Appleford Drive, Rainbow Way, and Chilton Close, caused by the Radley Park Ditch.
I believe the issue is water backing up from the culvert gate at that point, which needs to be kept clear. (Last 3 pictures from 5th January 2024, the morning after the overnight flooding).
The culvert gate has done a good job of stopping the culvert becoming blocked with debris which happened regularly before it was installed. To be fair the Environment Agency do do a reasonable job of clearing it but sometimes they are very busy elsewhere. I am concerned about the amount of soil washing imto the Ditch from the builing site, Most days it’s like soup and causes a lot of harm to fish and invertebrates all the way down to the Thames and beyond.
Did anyone else read how Thames Water can usually take excessive rainfall from rivers to fill up reservoirs; but were unable to do so with all the January rainfall, because the rivers were too full of sewage to have them used to recharge the reservoirs.
So after all the rain, the reservoirs aren’t full.
You couldn’t make it up…