Problems for Horlicks site (From This is The West Country)

Come on Cllr Pallister,let's get real, I've lived in Ilminster for 10 yuears, and even though Station Rd gets an occasional few inches of water on it, not from the river, the Horlicks site stays high and dry, even during the recent extreme rainfall when the A358 at Peasmarsh was a virtual river at times.!. Speaking to people in the town, none of them could recall the site being flooded. Maybe one our illustrious councillors (local or district) could furnish details of the flooding history of the site. Ditton St has probably suffered more in the way of flooding!. As for traffic- doesn't stand up. I live on the western end of Canal Way, and an awful lot of the residents regularly use their cars to go into town in order to shop.People from Herne rise area use their cars to pick up their children from the schools, and you can't get much closer to town than that. Wherever the developement takes place, there will, by simple logic going to be a noticeable increase in traffic flow. I have to say that there is a nasty aroma regarding the continual reluctance to develop the Horlicks site, particularly when the goverment suggests using brownfield sites where possible for developement rather than eating into our rapidly diminishing countryside.

Whilst the factory did not flood whilst I worked at Horlicks up until 2000, I was reliably informed that it had flooded there, right through into the office buildings.

The carpets still retained the stains!

I can recall seeing the fields behind the Spar Garage under water on several occasions but it did not stop the building there.

Rapidly diminishing countryside? Get your facts right; for information less than 1% of England is built on, we are still very much a green and pleasant country, despite develoment paranoia. We also have a chronic shortage of affordable housing and a depressed building industry. Government cash to invest in affordable housing is a win win situation, if put in the right place !

Maybe it is a fact that only 1% of England is built on, but the fact is, there is a need to avoid over expansion. In the past 40 or so years so many towns have grown to such an extent that what once were surrounding hamlets have now become part of their suburbs. Yes, there is undoubtedly a need for housing, though the term 'affordable' is a very loose term depending on the market aimed for-1/2 million is affordable if you have the right income!. The important thing is that any development must be strictly managed, particularly in rural areas such as that which we are lucky to live in, in order to protect the remaining 99% for as long as possible.