MORE than 100 homes and businesses in the centre of Coleford will get extra protection from flooding because of the design of the access to a new estate.

The access road to the 140-home development at Poolway Farm on the edge of the town will be built up as part of a flood alleviation scheme.

Freeman Homes was given the go-ahead to build the estate by the Forest Council’s development management committee at its meeting last week.

Bridget Westcott, the agent for Freeman Homes, told the committee: “A key direct benefit of the application is the proposed flood mitigation scheme that we have designed with the county council.

“It will benefit the future residents of the development and the existing Coleford residents alike by increasing floodplain storage and reducing food risk, including removing 70 existing houses and 55 businesses out the floodplain.

“Without the development, these critical improvements to local flood resilience would not be realised.”

Coleford town councillor Marilyn Cox said the works would help those living in Spout Lane and the wider town centre who were affected by flooding last November.

She said: “If we are saving all those people that I visited in November last year, when residents were up to two feet in water at the end of Spout Lane, when businesses had significant damage done, particularly to their basements, but also to the backs of their properties, I have to say that that is a significant point.”

A survey of the town’s drainage showed that the only location for measures that would have an meaningful benefit and were techically and economically feasible was the Poolway Farm site.

The developers agreed to work with the county council and it was “cost neutral” to the authority, a county council official told the committee.

He said: “Having this control point at the very top of the town allows us to stall water and take the pressure off the system throughout the town.

“By way of a comparison, we lined a 17-metre section of culvert within the town in February for £58,000.

“If we get going to work on the whole Coleford network, we' be talking in the millions.”

Committee chair Cllr Gill Moseley (LibDem, Newent and Taynton) said: “It's not unusual, although it's not very frequent that we get benefit outside of the development in question but I think this may may be one of those cases.”

The new estate will include 12 two-bed flats, 53 two-bed homes; 34 three-bed dwellings; 37 four-bed homes; and four five-bed dwellings.

The former farmhouse will be retained as a “focal point”.

There was disappointment that it will not include any “affordable” homes after the council accepted a report that said that would make the development unviable.

Ms Westcott said: “The scheme’s viability evidence has been independently tested and accepted by the council's viability assessors.

“Current viability constraints mean affordable housing cannot be provided at this time as a result, of the high abnormal costs of the development for items such as infrastructure.”