first wood street garages - plans

Plans are being considered to turn unused garages and derelict land bordering the River Weaver into six new homes close to Nantwich town centre.

But the proposals for land on First Wood Street, off Welsh Row, opposite the Simpson & Edge vehicle service business, have triggered concerns of flooding.

Applicants want to demolish the existing garages and erect a single block containing six 2-bedroom housing units with car parking to four of the units underneath the structure.

Each unit has an average floor area of 116 square metres and has individual access points.

The development has individual refuse storage areas and has two parking spaces per unit.

Town councillors discussed the plans at a meeting last week, warning of potential flood risk as the site borders River Weaver which has flooded in recent storms.

A report shows the site lies in Zone 3 Flood Risk, according to Government data.

Zone 3 compromises land assessed as having a 1 in 100 year or greater annual probability of river flooding.

A flood risk report with the application states: “Flood resilience measures will be incorporated into the building construction.

“Procedures will be put in place for managing the safe evacuation of the residents in the event of an alert from the Environment Agency’s flood warning service.”

But Nantwich Civic Society said they also have concerns.

“The evidence of flooding of the area is of great concern to our members, as we anticipated no development would be allowed in this
obvious area of the flood zone,” it said.

“In principle, though, we support the idea of new housing in the area, as it lies within the existing built area, replacing, a currently rather inauspicious site.

“There were two recent floods: 22 December 2020, and 21 January 2021.

“One Civic Society member made a note of the levels around the town in January when the river peaked at a gauge of 2.6m at the published Shrewbridge river level (at the railway bridge).

“At this time in January the water briefly came up to the low point in Welsh Row from both sides and the road was impassable.

“The car park at the garage in Wood St was flooded and was closed. Water entered the property at the back of the St Anne’s car park and had to be pumped out.

“The 2.6m gauge in January resulted in about 34.6m in Wood St.

“The Flood Risk Assessment talks a lot about compliance with rules, but there is little on common sense, and no comparison with the
known flooding events and gauge levels.

“Who would buy or invest in a property where previous flood levels would come to one step below the front door.”

Last date for submitting comments on the plans is May 19.

Cheshire East planners are expected to decide on the plans by June 2.

View all the plans and reports on the council’s planning portal here

(Location image courtesy of Google Maps)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By using this form you agree with the storage and handling of your data by this website, to learn more please read our privacy policy.

*

Captcha * Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.