WREXHAM Council and a developer have responded to fresh concerns over flooding at the proposed site of 1,500 homes. 

Heavy rainfall last week flooded the site at the Lower Berse Farm, off Ruthin Road, reinforcing local residents' complaints about the site being a flood risk.

Redrow plans to build more than 1,500 homes on the site. Proposals also include the conversion of the 14th-century Lower Berse Farmhouse to create a community centre, providing residents with amenities such as shops, a nursery, and a café.

It follows previous concerns over the suitability of the site, after flooding also happened during Storm Babet in October. 

Offa county councillor Kate Wilkinson has campaigned against the housing development, alongside Offa Community Council.

She said: "The current site is already prone to flooding and any new housing will increase the run-off from the site to other areas downstream.

"I'm incredibly concerned that the developers are willing to take this risk, knowing that climate change is happening as we speak and is forecast to get much worse."

The land is ear-marked for development in Wrexham Council's now adopted Local Development Plan. 

In response to the latest flooding incident, a spokesperson for Wrexham Council said: "The Lower Berse Farm site has been deemed suitable in principle for residential development following the independent scrutiny of the Local Development Plan by independent Inspectors appointed by the Welsh Ministers. 

"As part of the detailed planning process, the council will have to be satisfied, following a thorough assessment of technical evidence, that the site can be suitably drained before any houses can be built."

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Paul Murray, strategic land director at Redrow (north west), said: “We have taken care when designing this development to address concerns around flooding. An independent flooding assessment has been submitted as part of our planning application.

"The assessment found that areas of isolated flooding would not be made any worse by the development, nor will there be any knock-on impact downstream. In addition, there wouldn’t be any housing in the areas where potential surface water flooding has been identified.

“We believe this is a sustainable location for a carefully phased development of much-needed new homes and community facilities, built over a number of years."