SEWERS underneath the Castle Mill Boatyard may be unable to meet the needs of a proposed development in Jericho, it has been warned.

Thames Water has claimed that developers needed to do more work to show that sewerage systems could cope.

The water company said that more information was needed before it could assess whether or not connecting the proposed boatyard, community centre, 22 homes and other buildings would overload drains in the area.

Jericho city councillor Susanna Pressel called on developers, Strategic Iconic Assets Heritage Acquisition Fund (SIAHAF), to provide extra information.

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She said: “The application includes a new restaurant on the site and a cafe, which could both generate a lot of waste water and sewage, so we have to know if the system can cope with this, or existing homes may suffer.

“We also can’t afford to have a problem with excess water run-off.

“There have been serious problems with surface water flooding in various parts of the county and Thames Water clearly wants to ensure that the proposed new public square does not cause some of the nearby homes to flood if there’s a heavy downpour.”

The redevelopment of the Jericho boatyard would see a public square created in front of St Barnabas Church bordered by a boatyard, community centre and cafe, nursery, restaurant and 22 homes.

But Thames Water said it needed to see if there is “sufficient spare capacity to receive discharges from the proposed development”.

In its letter to the council, dated September 10, the water company said: “The developer has failed to provide a proposed peak discharge rate to the public system.

“In addition, insufficient evidence has been submitted to prove the hierarchy of surface water disposal has been sufficiently investigated.

“Without this information Thames Water is unable to assess the impact of proposed first -time connection to the existing public sewer.

“If investigations conclude the sewer network is unlikely to be able to support demand from this development, the developer [will have] to fund an impact study to ascertain whether it will lead to overloading of existing waste infrastructure, and, if required, recommend network upgrades.”

The proposals are expected to be considered by Oxford City Council next month.

St Barnabas Parochial Church Council member Dr Henry Gibbon, and long-term Jericho resident, said: “Inevitably with the Victorian infrastructure there will be some issues.”

Jacky Sadones, 54, who runs the The Old Bookbinders Ale House in Canal Street, said: “The drains do smell already, you can smell it outside and the smell comes up through our sink.

“They would need to do something to the sewers before they add a load more houses.”

SIAHAF was asked to comment but did not respond.


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