Winter flooding hit Abingworth Meadows, Thakeham. Bellway dug a drainage swale before seeking permission. Councillors decide on 22 September.
Homes on a Bellway estate at Thakeham flooded repeatedly through the winter of 2024/25 because the drainage approved with the planning permission was not enough. Bellway dug a new drainage system to fix it, without planning permission, and is only now asking the council to approve the work after the event.
Councillors decide the application at 5.30pm on Tuesday 22 September, and officers are recommending approval (officer report, PDF). It reached committee because more than eight people in different households objected on planning grounds that conflict with that recommendation.
Abingworth Meadows sits on Storrington Road at Thakeham, about ten miles south of Horsham and two miles north of Storrington. The whole development runs to 209 homes, all now built.
What flooded, and why
At the end of 2024 it became clear there was a significant flooding problem at the southern end of the estate. The officer report is direct about the cause:
The Flood Risk Assessment undertaken for Phase 3 of the Abingworth Meadows development had not fully anticipated this flooding and the approved drainage measures in place were not sufficient to deal with this issue.
Officers say the exact reason is not known. Their assessment is that it was likely partly because significant vegetation, which had acted as a barrier, was replaced with hard surfacing to build Phase 3. The south-east corner of the estate also sits below fields that rise away from it, which sends surface water down towards the houses. In heavy rain, properties in Strawberry Close flooded regularly.
Bellway put temporary measures in first. Then it proposed a permanent fix using the Buffer Strip, a landscaped band of land behind numbers 2 to 22 (evens) Springett Close that separates the estate from open farmland.
What was built, and when
The system is a series of shallow attenuation ponds running down to a larger pond that holds permanent water, with an overflow pipe into an existing drain that eventually reaches the watercourse to the north.
Before it went in, Bellway met residents alongside a council planning officer, a council compliance officer, a Thakeham Parish representative and its own staff. A site visit followed with residents, a council planning officer and a West Sussex County Council Lead Local Flood Authority officer. The view taken was that the work should be done as soon as possible.
The works were built in October 2025 and finished in November 2025. Since then, officers say, there have been no further reports of flooding and the system is doing its job.
Building first and applying later carries a real risk, and the report says so plainly: permission can be refused for work already done. Officers say it happened here “due to the extreme risk of flooding to adjacent residents”.
Several trees and hedgerow behind the Springett Close gardens had to come out. None were protected by a tree preservation order, and officers had agreed to the removal in advance. Replacement planting is proposed, and the report notes that planting done earlier this year is unlikely to have survived the summer heatwaves, so the strip will need replanting to an agreed scheme.
The argument is now about access, not drainage
The Buffer Strip is currently fenced off completely. Under this application the fencing at the eastern and western ends comes down and the public can walk in. Maintenance would split: the management company for Abingworth Meadows looks after the drainage half, Thakeham Parish the landscaped half.
That is what most of the objections are about. The council received 23 letters of objection from 14 addresses, plus one from a planning consultant. Their grounds include:
- the drainage solution is insufficient
- opening the strip would let people see into Springett Close gardens, raising burglary and child safety concerns
- the swale should be fenced, as the risk assessment states
- the strip should stay closed and be managed for nature
- Bellway should pay a contribution towards maintaining it
- approved landscaping commitments have not been honoured, and the planting on site does not match the plans
- the gate at the Hammerhead should not give public access
Eleven letters of support came in from 10 addresses. Their argument is the opposite: the drainage was installed on the advice of the council and the county flood authority, it works, it has stopped the flooding, and a dispute between the parish and some residents could end up removing it.
Thakeham Parish Council does not object, subject to conditions. It says it supports the works that are “protecting the houses from Flooding”, and it wants the Buffer Zone transferred to the parish as public amenity greenspace. It asks for a post and rail fence around the swale, which Bellway has agreed to. It also points out that the estate already has hundreds of metres of unfenced culverts, some deeper than the swale.
The parish does not agree with residents who want the strip kept closed. It notes that footpaths and rights of way run right up against properties elsewhere on the estate, at Strawberry Close and Pavillion Close among others, and says the planned hedge line along the top of the bank plus the swale itself will keep people away from the houses.
The parish is also unhappy on process, saying it had agreed a boundary with the council and Bellway across numerous site visits and meetings that was then not submitted with the application.
What the consultees said
- West Sussex Lead Local Flood Authority: no objection.
- Horsham District Council landscape architect: no objection, subject to a management plan. The officer wants more wetland species added, because some of the proposed plants are vigorous and could dominate without a robust management regime.
- West Sussex Fire and Rescue: comment only, asking for fire hydrant details.
The money question
Under the original legal agreement, the Buffer Strip transfers to Thakeham Parish for £1, along with a contribution towards maintaining it.
That contribution was dropped when Phase 3 was reworked in 2019. The report explains that the full approval for 75 homes became liable for the Community Infrastructure Levy, and asking for a separate buffer strip payment on top was considered unreasonable, since 25% of the CIL from Phase 3 goes to the parish to spend.
So the parish gets the land, and a share of CIL, but no dedicated maintenance sum. That is why several objectors and the parish itself return to who pays to look after it.
What it means for you
If you live at Abingworth Meadows, the practical question on 22 September is not whether the swale stays. It is whether the strip behind Springett Close becomes a space you can walk in, and who pays to maintain it.
If you want to comment, the application reference is DC/26/0945 and the file is on the council’s planning register. The case officer is Jason Hawkes on 01403 215162. The committee sits at 5.30pm on Tuesday 22 September in the Council Chamber at Albery House, Springfield Road, Horsham.
More on how the process works, and how to comment on any application in the district, is on our Horsham planning applications page.
Two parts of Phase 3 are still outstanding whatever happens to this application: the community studio workshops and the allotments, neither of which has been built.
Sources
- Horsham District Council, officer report on DC/26/0945, Planning Committee 22 September 2026 (PDF)
- Horsham District Council, Planning Committee agenda, 22 September 2026
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