Colin and I recently attended a meeting held by the Longbridge Area Action Plan regarding ‘Water Related Matters’  –  The meeting was chaired by Jill Kingaby who is the Government Inspectorate.  In attendance were:  2 Representatives from Barnt Green Waters/Barnt Green Sailing Club who were concerned over the opening up of the River Arrow.  Also in attendance were representatives fromBirmingham and Bromsgrove Council, two representatives from the Environment Agency and 3 Surveyors from St. Modwen.  

Barnt Green Waters were concerned that the opening up of the River Rea and River Arrow would cause flooding. Apparently this area has flooded in the past.  Bromsgrove Council stated they had carried out a strategic flood risk assessment and that there appear to be no specific major flooding issues.  Our concern of course was to ensure that once the work is carried out, NO water can be taken fromCofton Lake in order to ensure the proposed watercourse is kept full of water.  The Environment Agency and St. Modwens did assure all concerned that no water would be drained from Cofton Lake purely to ensure this watercourse is kept full. 

We were also concerned who would be responsible once the building work was completed and officially handed over and St. Modwens had left the site.  Who would be responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the proposed culverted watercourse and surrounding parkland?  St. Modwens stated that this would be handed over to ‘another body’  !   Either privately funded, a charity or Parish or District Council – none of the Council representatives sounded too keen on this idea and it was then suggested that when the houses are sold each individual resident pays an annual fee for this maintenance.

To sum up it seems that do date no one really knows – Fortunately it affects Barnt Green more than us and they are going to keep us informed of any further decisions. 

Diane