Our long-awaited meeting with South Cambs District Council and other bodies concerned with the issue of Longstanton’s groundwater loss took place on 26th January. Amongst those attending were five members of LEGG, including our two Parish Councillor members; a member of Northstowe Town Council’s Hydrology working group; SCDC’s head of planning and Chief Executive; representatives of Homes England; and our two newly elected District Councillors for the ward. Northstowe’s Phase 1 developers L&Q (formerly Gallagher) were invited but declined to attend.
The meeting was intended mainly for LEGG to communicate Longstanton’s situation and feelings directly to the Local Planning Authority (SCDC) who supervised the building of Phase 1, and to discover their position vis à vis investigating and remediating our groundwater loss. We wanted to open a constructive discourse and set some objectives to move the situation forward for Longstanton.
The Challenge
It was soon established that it remains our main problem to identify precisely the mechanism causing our groundwater loss, and (in consequence) who or what is responsible for undertaking and financing investigation and remedies.
The prevailing opinion from SCDC Planning is that the size and complexity of the man-made environment now present on Phase 1 makes it “extraordinarily difficult” and expensive to pinpoint the physical cause of the groundwater loss. LEGG understands SCDC’s point of view, but does not necessarily agree with it, and Northstowe Town Council’s representative also suggested that narrowing down potential problem areas at Northstowe, to reduce the scope of investigations needed, would not be as difficult as it might appear. All parties agreed that a necessary and straightforward step would be the completion of the unfinished CCTV survey of Northstowe’s surface water drainage system. This is now a stated action point following the meeting.
LEGG’s recent meeting with HR Wallingford enabled us to propose another avenue of investigation: ionic testing to try to establish whether there is any movement of groundwater into the Northstowe surface drainage system, where it is not intended to be, according to the design principles of the system. This type of test is inexpensive and not technically difficult, and SCDC have agreed to follow up the proposal — a second action point from the meeting.
Agreement was also reached over the need to collate all groundwater monitoring data that is relevant to Northstowe Phase 1. Identifying what data is available and making it easier to examine and assess is thus a third action point. Homes England, although they were not involved in Phase 1 of Northstowe, are keen to help where they can. For future reference, they have offered to share their Phase 2 and 3 monitoring data, including that from an expansion of their borehole network intended to allow better strategic groundwater monitoring of Northstowe and the areas bordering Longstanton and Oakington.
LEGG’s final request for this initial meeting was that our meetings with SCDC and other relevant bodies take place every month, so that channels of communication remain open and progress updates can be sought and delivered regularly. SCDC were happy to agree, and our next meeting is scheduled for late February.
Going Forward
LEGG was pleased to secure the meeting with SCDC, and we are pleased with the commitments made to begin meeting regularly and working creatively towards a solution to the village’s groundwater loss. Recent public statements by SCDC officers and elected representatives regarding the need to balance development with care for and preservation of the environment are also to be welcomed. We thank all those who attended the meeting for their goodwill and best efforts.
Rest assured that LEGG will diligently explore all avenues on behalf of Longstanton. This is a crisis that has been years in the making and can’t be solved overnight, but LEGG is committed to doing whatever is necessary to get a result for the village.
SCDC cannot be allowed to hide behind a false narrative that the size and complexity of the man-made environment on Northstowe Phase 1 made it difficult/ impossible to identify the causes of Longstanton’s groundwater issue. SCDC was advised by December 2015 that ponds across the village were drying out following dewatering on Phase 1 earlier that summer. Even after being advised that water levels in our ponds was collapsing (and fish had died) SCDC did not investigate what was happening and allowed a second bout of dewatering to take place in 2016. Groundworks on Phase 1 had only just happened when problems began. There was no extensive man-made environment to mask the cause of the problem. The situation Longstanton is in today is a direct result of SCDC’s failure to act in 2016. Why did they do nothing and allow the developer to continue dewatering unchallenged? This abject failure needs challenging and excuses that Phase 1 is now covered to roads and houses cannot be used to alleviate SCDC of its responsibility for allowing this situation to happen. It is up to SCDC to take all necessary action now to resolve the issue. If that is harder and more expensive than if it had been sorted out in 2016, that is their problem not Longstanton’s.