Have Your Say: SODC Planning – A Contributing Factor to Sewage Discharge into Waterways

Dear Editor,

A development of four houses in Dunsden Green continues at pace despite three drainage schemes (P25/S0488/DIS, P25/S1630/DIS, P25/S2346/DIS) already having been refused by SODC planning. A fourth scheme, submitted last week (P25/S2346/DIS), now proposes that due to ground conditions, surface water run off will be connected to the main sewer—despite planning guidance explicitly stating: “A surface water discharge to a Thames Water recorded foul sewer will not be permitted under any circumstance.”

This situation exposes a serious flaw in the system. Planning permission should never have been granted on land known to hold surface water. The Playhatch sewage pumping station is already overwhelmed; adding further surface water into the system inevitably means more untreated sewage being discharged into our rivers and waterways.

How can this be allowed to happen, given what we already know about the fragile state of our sewage infrastructure and the chronic lack of investment in treatment plants?

It appears that unelected officers at SODC are making decisions with little regard for the environment, public health, or long-term sustainability. Instead, planning policy seems to prioritise so-called housing need by enabling developers to cram ever more large executive homes onto unsuitable sites, regardless of consequence.

Your Housing Sites Update of 29 August highlights the sheer volume of development coming forward locally. I understand that yet more proposals are on the horizon—including another housing estate opposite the failed Thames Farm Taylor Wimpey site on Reading Road, and the 1,200 homes proposed by Gladman on the Caversham border. How can these be considered in light of the environmental crisis we are already experiencing?

I believe SODC is becoming a major contributing factor to sewage discharge in South Oxfordshire. I urge all your readers to write to our MP, Freddie van Mierlo, Councillor Leigh Rawlins and to SODC Planning to demand answers as to why new housing is permitted while the basic infrastructure to support it is absent.

Meanwhile, at Dunsden, works continue in direct breach of planning conditions. Yet SODC has so far taken no meaningful enforcement action. A developer who ignores conditions is committing a criminal offence once served with an Enforcement or Breach of Condition Notice—so why is SODC so reluctant to act, and why are they allowing construction to continue unchecked?

Yours faithfully,