COTSWOLD District Council (CDC) ‘cannot take any further action’ against a housing developer, despite several homes at a new Fairford estate being occupied before a drainage scheme was fully implemented.

Bloor Homes was issued with the breach of condition notice on July 25 by the council, after 11 homes became occupied at the 124-home Fairford Gate development, though the developer insisted it had done nothing wrong.

According to a CDC spokesman, the planning committee approved the housing application on the condition ‘a foul and surface water drainage scheme’ be submitted ‘prior to works commencing’ and be ‘implemented before any houses were occupied’ – an agreement which it did not believe was stuck to.

The spokesman added: “Whilst it is understood that a temporary solution has been implemented by the developer to deal with drainage in the interim, there was a clear breach of the condition, hence the notice.”

However, speaking at a full town council meeting on October 11, Cllr Sue Coakley, CDC member for Fairford, said because Bloor Homes had made ‘progress with the system with Thames Water (TW)’ court action would no longer be ‘reasonable’.

She said: “They [Bloor Homes] have made progress with the system with TW and TW have agreed in principle.

“We've come up against a rock and a hard place in that we have evidence to prosecute them for failing to adhere to the planning permission but it wouldn't be accepted by the court as being reasonable when the solution is about to be delivered.

“We cannot take any further action against them,” she added.

Speaking in August, a Bloor Homes spokesman said: “Following a number of meetings with TW, we submitted full drainage details in November 2015 to CDC and have taken all reasonable measures to secure the delivery of the appropriate drainage infrastructure in association with the development at Fairford.

“The foul and surface water drainage schemes are technically approved by CDC and TW, and implementation of the approved foul drainage scheme will be completed by TW.

“In the meantime, we have made arrangements to manage foul and surface water on site to ensure that there is no harm to the local environment or disturbance to the amenity of residents.”

Cllr Coakley added: “The important thing is the people living on that site do have adequate conditions, they do have hot water, cold water, drainage, foul sewage that is all being dealt with to standards that are acceptable from an environmental health perspective.”