Hello Everyone,

Well......who would have thought a year ago that this would have been such a mammoth David and Goliath venture?

Who would have believed the lengths that regular upstanding residents would have to go to, to have their voices listened to when they tried to explain to SODC and its statutory consultees the shortcomings of proposals to still build 95 houses on a site that has clearly now shown that it is not suitable for such a scheme. The discovery of sinkholes and underground dissolution features extending more than 16 metres below ground is such an obvious 'roadblock' for such a proposal that it is hard to believe the lengths that Taylor Wimpey would go to, to force its will upon local residents. 

It is clear that creating a concrete mass down to 16 metres in places and across at least 20% of the site - this is about the size of one and a half football pitches - is sheer madness. It would not normally happen and certainly not in a semi-rural location in Oxfordshire such as Lower Shiplake. If Taylor Wimpey had their time over, they would not have purchased this site, and similarly, if the Planning Inspectorate had been aware of the ground conditions, it is pretty unlikely that they would have granted Planning at Appeal.

So.....why do it? The only reason to do it at all is that Taylor Wimpey overpaid for the site and now have a large hole in their balance sheet. 

Why can they do it? SODC Officers agreed to grant a variation to the Planning Permission to Taylor Wimpey which allowed the developer to start the scheme by building part of the access way into the site. This permission was given and permitted Taylor Wimpey to avoid setting out first of all how the drainage would be dealt with for the site. This undemocratic decision was not subjected to any form of external scrutiny at all, and moreover, no one even knew that the Application had been submitted to SODC. No one could therefore challenge that decision or even ask a Councillor to investigate why it was happening. This form of opaque decision making is in my opinion and that of many others ludicrous! It simply should not be permitted to happen, and is totally contrary to the way in which the English Justice system works, as the decision was taken behind closed doors, the opinions of other officers were overruled by the Department Head, and this highly dubious decision which was labelled as a 'non-material variation' was taken in the full knowledge by that time, that the site had highly suspect ground conditions. No mention of the ground conditions was contained in the Officer's Report, nor was there any mention that once approved, it was the developer's intention to seek approval to a Certificate of Lawful Development. This Certification crystallises the Planning Permission and gives the right to the developer to build out their scheme in full according to the Planning Permission.

This is the reason why SODC are now between a 'rock and a hard place'. Whilst SODC has indicated that they intend to reject the drainage scheme as currently submitted, this has only arisen because of the 'noise' we have made and this ultimately after a year, resulted in OCC and SODC Drainage procuring their own external advice on the subject of the drainage which concurs with what residents have been saying for over a year now.

TFAG has brought these issues to the attention of the Ombudsman, who found fault with SODC's actions and also to local Councillors at District and County level, as well as to the Cabinet member responsible for Planning at SODC.

So yes it seems that finally, common sense has prevailed, but it has taken a year to achieve, its taken procurement of 4 external expert reports on the matter by residents and Parish/Town Councils, and,  we should not lose sight of the fact that none of the authorities involved initially were prepared to say that the proposals were defective.....the original application was but a day away from being approved when residents stepped in to stop what was happening.

I am delighted with this success of course, but the awful thing is that I have little doubt that the last year's efforts have simply delayed things and we shall see what Taylor Wimpey's next steps will be.

Thank you everyone for all of your support, good wishes and kind words.

Peter @ TFAG

(Thames Farm Action Group)