Blocked drains hold up affordable housing scheme

Twm Owen, local democracy reporter

Toilets backed up with sewage have caused the latest delay to an affordable housing scheme that’s already been held up for five years.

The plan for 20 homes was approved in March 2020 subject to addressing flooding concerns but when it finally came back before councillors with a recommendation for approval at their November meeting they heard how the area is blighted by blocked drains.

Resident Catherine Ward said she has Crohn’s disease, which she described as an inflammation of the bowels, and said access to the toilet is vital for her.

She said: “Every time there is heavy rain I’m on alert waiting for the toilet to fill with sewage that comes right up to the brim and when it floods over into the bathroom I have to clear it up and have to use a bucket.”

Ms Ward said she has lived at Wern Gifford in Pandy, near Abergavenny where the new houses are planned for a field between existing homes and the A465 road, for 25 years and said when the rain stops it can take 24 hours for the sewerage to “return to normal”.

She added: “It is not a very dignified or hygienic way to live your life and is awful for mental wellbeing and upsetting to have to do this.

“You can’t just go to the toilet like a normal person for fear it will just come back up.”

Ann Bentley, of Llanvihangel Crucorney Community Council, said, in a video submission, it objected to the application due to what it perceived to be a lack of capacity in the local sewerage network.

She said Dwr Cymru Welsh Water had confirmed to the council in 2013 the sewer serving Pandy is “hydraulically overloaded.”

Sewerage has overflowed into homes and gardens for many years said the community councillor who added she wasn’t aware of any attempt by the water company to address the network problem.

Drain

A spokesman for applicants P&P Builders and housing association Hedyn said the application site, which will have separate systems for household sewerage and surface water, will be connected to a drain under the A465 road and its application wouldn’t make sewerage problems any worse.

Monmouthshire County Council planning officer Philip Thomas said Welsh Water is also the council’s statutory adviser on sewerage and it had confirmed there is capacity in the sewerage network and at the Pandy Waste Water Treatment Works.

“We haven’t got anything to hang our coat on and go back and say to Welsh Water, ‘we don’t think this development is ready to go yet’,” Mr Thomas told councillors.

Several councillors however said they couldn’t support the proposal at present and it was agreed to defer the application at the suggestion of head of planning Andrew Jones, who said it would allow the planning department time to have a “conversation” with Welsh Water.

Committee chairman Cllr Phil Murphy said the application couldn’t be used to solve an existing problem “but we can make sure it is not making it any worse.”