A ROW has broken out over whether a housebuilder can be relied upon to ensure a new estate in Chorley does not pose a flood risk.

Redrow was granted outline permission last September for what is now a 53-home development between Lucas Lane and Town Lane in Whittle-le-Woods.

The approval was subject to conditions meaning the developer will have to demonstrate that it has designed a surface water drainage system capable of coping with a one-in-100-year “critical storm”.

Those plans will be put forward before building begins, but as the application came back before Chorley Council’s planning committee to deal with separate details about the design of the dwellings, locals seized upon the opportunity to revisit their concerns over flooding.

Paul Newall, speaking on behalf of Whittle-le-Woods Residents’ Association, said flood mitigation measures on Redrow’s completed Lucas Green development nearby “have not worked well”.

Redrow says it has never received reports of flooding at its previous Whittle development.

The residents’ association also commissioned a hydrology consultant to assess the flood risk report presented by Redrow for its latest site. That concluded that the surface water flooding risk had not been “adequately addressed”.

But the company which compiled the report for Redrow rubbished that claim.

The committee was presented with a statement from Waterco which said that although the wider Whittle area had experienced flooding, records showed “no historical flooding had affected the Lucas Lane site”.

It added that the drainage plans were designed to mimic or even reduce existing water run-off rates from the current greenfield plot, so that “there should be no adverse effects downstream”.

Following the meeting, Craig Ward, technical director for Redrow Homes, said: “We understand the concern of local residents, but all flood mitigation measures for our proposed new development in Whittle-le-Woods were presented at the outline planning stage.

“We will agree all measures with the regulators and implement them in full.”

The planning committee approved the ‘reserved matters’ relating to the design and layout of the new development.

This included a reduction in the overall number of properties from the 83 originally planned.

Members heard that there were a number of “constraints” in developing the site.