Darwin Group - Ongoing Works to Dump Their Water onto Their Neighbours Regardless of the Consequences

Other ways Darwin Group/Built-Off Site have tried to drain their water on to their neighbours are via a wildlife pond directly bordering our land  (planning application 10/01505/FUL) which they put pipework into from the drainage system, covered over and claimed the pond was only filling with rainwater.  Then it became an attenuation pond when this ruse didn't work, (10/03945/FUL) and when they couldn't get that through it became a car park (12/01279/FUL).

The pond saga will be added to this blog very soon but I wanted to get the pipe saga put in because I have today taken photographs showing that Darwin Group are once again targeting me directly to damage our land and our home.    

Now the first two applications for a pond said they 'will utilise an area of previously disused marshy ground', which is what the land was, although it contained a lot of oak trees and was an area omitted in the 2008 application to enlarge the former Parry's yard.  It was recommended for protection by the Tree Officer in 2008 because of the trees, but unsurprisingly this was not Conditioned in the planning consent at this time. ( As a result the oak trees were ripped out and infilling of the area had to be stopped by the Council's Enforcement Officer, but not until a lot of the work had been done)   

The third application Built-Off Site submitted said:  'The area that is proposed for car parking was originally an area of rubble on the site (Please refer to Photograph 1 and 2). This was tidied up in 2010 to create a pond area'.  So a complete change of story with photographs submitted which showed the area NEXT TO the woodland they ripped out to put the pond in, not the pond area at all.

The problem with the photographs is that they are clearly of the area to the west of the pond area.  This is blatantly obvious because trees are shown to the east of the photographs.  

You don't have to be that clever to see that the pond was put in where the trees are shown on the above photograph

The original depth was shown in my submission.

This is the actual pond area, which is directly adjacent to our land.

So what did the Council say when presented with my photographs?  The Officers Report says that 'With regard to the levels of the site as far as can be ascertained these have been altered to reflect that of the site prior to unauthorised works being carried out...:  by using the recommended depth of permeable stone to surface the parking area, this will enable water to be stored below the top surface and for it to filter through to the ground below. As such this will recreate the characteristics of the water flows prior to works commencing on the site'.

Er, no this won't happen because it was a marshy area which was completely under water every winter,  but this is an inconvenient fact for the Council, so why not just ignore it, which is what they did, let Darwin Group claim it was brick rubble and then let them raise the area, without putting any drainage in.  Sod the damage to the neighbours, who cares about them?  

This photograph of the trees to the east of the pond shows a flat area whereas Darwin Group have sharply cambered the car park so that it drains into the Forestry woodland. 

The camber is shown very obviously in the photograph shown below. Look how much higher the land is to the left of the photograph.  How the site is draining can be viewed on this old footage from 2012.

There is no doubt this is deliberate drainage of Darwin Groups land into the Forestry woodland, another inconvenient fact the Council don't care about.  

The plan Darwin Group submitted with their planning application for this car park was for a ramp joining the existing tarmac car park to the lower, stoned car park, which looked flat.  This bears no resemblance to this plan.  

But this is water from a small area, isn't it?  Unfortunately not.  Remember this is a company with chronic drainage issues and  who had already made multiple threats to try to divert their runoff onto our land.

A pipe and pump appeared in the drain south of the office, with the pipe running straight through the tarmac car park into the new car park.

Originally the water  was draining under the fence just the other side of the lane dividing our ditch from Darwin Groups land.  In other words draining straight to the lowest point of the car park and out into the woodland.

The result?  Our land shown in the photograph above directly left of the office could not drain and the whole area went under water. When the winds got up six of our biggest birch trees heaved and we lost all of the best trees in this copse.  

The car park was also massively flooded, as this footage shows

Link is here https://youtu.be/zRLasoIF2zE
so Darwin Group put a pipe in further along the bank, out of the car park area as shown here. 

This photograph was taken in 2017.

These photographs were taken in 2018.

Yet again the pipe going straight through the car park, through the fence into the woodland.

This photograph shows the devastating effect on the woodland. 

And now in 2019

Instead of the pipe going over the bank into the Forestry woodland, the pipe now diverts along the car park directly along the fence going downhill until it disappears under soil right at the lowest part of the car park closest to our land.  So this is again going to devastate our land.

Despite having photographs of the pipework and the flooding, Shropshire Council have granted planning applications  for additional buildings on this site.  

I have now written requesting Enforcement action, but this is indicative of the attitude of the Council.  Woodland has no value to them, and neither does biodiversity.  

Lets see what they say.