Making a splash

Whilst I may have concerns about the developments on the Front Garden (not least the possible need for occupants to travel by boat rather than car), for the Swindon Front Garden Action Group to claim that there was

between 1ft and 1.5ft of water covering many areas where houses are set to be built and where roads into the site have already been created.

is only half true. Some of the main roads on the site were flooded. The areas where the houses will be built were not. Even just a quick look at the plans shows that all the housing, retail and industrial developments are on higher land. As the man from the developers said

All residential development on Wichelstowe will be outside the predicted flood plain and will be built with ground floors at least 600mm above the predicted worst case flood level to give an added degree of certainty that it will not suffer in times of flood.

However, he wouldn’t be a developer if he could resist the urge to indulge in a little spinning.

Similarly all of the distributor roads serving the residential areas are designed to be above the flood level so that the communities are not cut off.

I guess the road I photographed must be serving something other than residential areas… a water park, perhaps?