Sinah Field: HIRA Presentation
(Please note that Presentations must focus on the site specific issues.)
"The proposed development site’s high water table- within 3 feet of the surface - requires a SUDS, a Sustainable Urban Drainage System, 510 feet long, over 1.5 times the length of a typical football pitch. We understand that the proposed pumping station must both drain surface water and pump it into the elevated on-site pond or basin. Will a UPS or uninterrupted power supply with dual source generator be an integral part of the proposed pumping station to cope with any utilities failure?
The developers’ online statement is that Southern Water will seek to adopt both below ground drainage and the new pumping station. This is inconsistent with the statement, made by Southern Water’s Paul Kent at Hayling’s Infrastructure Meeting on October 25th, that Southern Water does not engage in surface water drainage. If this is the case, exactly who, locally. would be responsible for the maintenance and routine running of the pumping station, given that Hayling’s community is required, under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, to be ‘resilient’? Residents also need proof of how this SUDS system will be sustained in perpetuity.
Surface water drainage would normally drain into soakaways. Given the field’s low topography, we are concerned about the consequences of the huge underground drainage repository required: where and at what depth will this be located?
The proposed unusually elevated SUDS basin has been described as providing “different areas of wetland”. Inevitably there must be health and safety issues resulting from this body of water. What fencing both encourages wildlife accessibility and ensures people’s exclusion, and exactly how will this be permanently maintained? The basin’s extension into sensitive environmental areas, destroys existing foraging ground for wildlife and cannot mitigate Barratt’s Oysters development.
Malarial mosquitoes thrived on early twentieth century Hayling, requiring routine spraying of standing water. Havant Borough Council will not spray private land areas. How will developers solve this potential problem that they are inadvertently creating by replacing arable land with standing water nearby hundreds of dwellings. And how can insecticidal sprays foster biodiversity over such a huge area?
Pumping surplus water from the SUDS into the watercourse ditches currently running alongside the Billy Trail, raises further environmental and health issues. Either mosquito larvae or insecticidal sprays must enter the wider ecological environment, affecting other animals including humans. This watercourse empties into the extremely sensitive saltmarsh at the north end of the property. Huge displacement of water cannot be mitigated at this point. Regarding the pipe work draining into Langstone Harbour, we understand that this has been inadequately maintained. What assurances will residents and Billy Trail users be given that the pipes’ drainage does not back up either into the Trail or the new site as a result of poor maintenance or indeed excessive precipitation?
The Project Manager at Hayling’s public presentation stated there would be a foul drain pumping station on site, to compensate for non existent gravity feed to the drain network. Hayling residents suffered 2 months of main road closures very recently as a direct consequence of the failure of a foul drain pumping station, and the collapse of subterranean pipework due to sub-strata instability. We understand that raw sewage leached into the water table. On the proposed Sinah site, the SUDS, managing all surface drainage, is in close proximity. How can residents be reassured of the developments’ infrastructure integrity?
Havant Borough Council’s policy is to provide jobs & homes for local people. Even Hayling’s new ‘affordable’ developments are too expensive for our first time buyers, as are the new private rents, forcing our young to leave the Island. Local estate agents tell us that Hayling’s new developments’ buyers often come from outside Havant & typically commute to work in for example Waterlooville or Cosham. This is unsustainable for our roads’ capacity and does nothing for Hayling’s economy. I agree with both other speakers’ expressed concerns."
