WISBECH: Now it's turn of Environment Agency to put spanner in the works of club's ground move

EXCLUSIVE

By JOHN ELWORTHY

THE Environment Agency has thrown a major spanner in the works of Wisbech Town Football Club's proposed ground move.

The agency has refused to sign off a key condition in the agreement which would allow the club to move to Bronte House on the Lynn Road.

The club had wanted to install private sewage treatment works at the new ground but the agency is insisting they provide a connection to the main public sewage system.

"No justification has been provided for the use of a treatment plant instead of connection to the public foul sewer," says Louise Best, a planning liaison officer with the Environment Agency.

She's told West Norfolk Council that the club is breaking the terms of its original agreement which was to connect to the public foul sewer.

She reminded the council that in November 2007, when the application was made, that Anglian Water had indicated that connection would be feasible.

"There is no documented reason stating why this original proposal has been abandoned," says Ms Best.

She says the Environment Agency is therefore unable to recommend the discharge of the condition relating to foul and surface water drainage- an important element in the council's agreement to allow the ground move to go ahead.

She says Wisbech Town's proposal to use a non mains foul drainage system in a publicly sewered area is not acceptable.

"The installation of private sewage treatment facilities within publicly sewered areas is not normally considered environmentally acceptable because of the greater risks of failures leading to pollution of the water environment compared to public sewerage systems," says Ms Best.

Government policies stress that the "first presumption must be to provide a system of foul drainage discharging into a public sewer'.