A SENIOR councillor has expressed his concern after it has come to light that "every household in Basingstoke faces water rationing" if over 17,000 new homes are built in the borough.

Government calculations suggest as many as 17,820 new homes need to be built in Basingstoke and Deane by the end of 2039 and council documents reveal that Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council (BDBC) needs to build 7,703 houses more than they currently have in the pipeline.

It's part of the update process of a document called the local plan, which sets the rules surrounding the development of the borough and can be used by developers as a blueprint on where and how to build houses.

During an economic, planning, and housing committee meeting held on Monday, July 18 it was brought to light residents' water supply would have to be "rationed" if plans go ahead.

SEE ALSO: More 'scientific evidence' about water supply needed before developments go ahead, say experts

At the meeting councillors discussed the water cycle study, which has been developed to provide evidence to ensure that the scale and location of the development proposed can be met without impacting on the water environment. 

Leader of the Basingstoke and Deane Independents Cllr Paul Harvey said: "The impact of building more houses, as planned by the council will mean every household in Basingstoke faces water rationing at a rate nowhere else in country or in Europe does at the moment, if they plan the impact of all those thousands of houses to be water neutral. If it isn't water neutral we risk more pollution, more damage to our environment.”

He said at the same time it would mean "half of all existing homes in Basingstoke and Deane" would have to be "retrofitted” to use recycled water. 

Retrofitting is the act of fitting new systems designed for high energy efficiency and low energy consumption to buildings previously built without them.

He added: "We need affordable homes for local people not houses that tick a government box, and does irrevocable damage to our environment like the river Loddon and river Test. Remember how the water companies have poured tonnes of sewage into our rivers and they've been allowed to get away with it. We're living through a heatwave, through climate change. This council is running scared of the Government and not pushing back hard enough on these crucial issues that will shape all our futures."

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Meanwhile, Cllr Onnalee Cubbit, pointed out to the committee that retrofitting has “not been achieved anywhere else in the world".

“As far as I have understood the report shows [Water Cycle Study] there is a requirement for us to ration consumption and it is very evidently weaved through it," she said.

Carl Pelling, technical director from ACOM who was the lead verifier for the report, said: "We don’t have any examples were [retrofitted has been used] on a district wide or country wide level, or however that is defined, where that is achieved because there have not been policies that have driven that.

“In Australia there are parts where they have driven it down through recycling technologies.

“What we have done is investigate whether adding growth onto the existing problem would stop you from reaching good status in the future.

“There are existing problems in Basingstoke and Deane when it comes to water as there are in many parts of the country but when you assess the impact of growth it is not this that would stop targets being met."

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