Villagers are no strangers to having their gardens filled with sewage during spells of wet weather, with portable toilets previously being drafted in when residents were unable to flush their own toilets.
Environment Agency data shows that Tempsford Water Recycling Centre, which is managed by Anglian Water, had 33 sewage spills last year – releasing waste into the Stone Brook tributary of the Great Ouse for 638 hours, which is equivalent to 27 days.
Richard Fuller, the Conservative MP for North East Bedfordshire, said: “Tempsford has had persistent problems with sewage for many years. Over Christmas and well into January a considerable number of residents had sewage on their grounds or were unable to flush their toilets.
“I brought Anglian Water to visit and to their credit they were pumping water out 24/7 but the underlying problems remain.
“And this is an issue beyond Tempsford itself but also affects Wyboston to the north which would also likely be caught up in this off-the-scale proposal.”
Steve Cooney, chairman of the village’s museum, said that fields in the winter are routinely “under two or three inches of water”.
“Can you imagine tarmacking all that and building on all that? God knows what’s going to happen,” he said.
National planning guidelines stipulate that building on floodplains “should be avoided” because of the risk to the developments and of exacerbating flooding elsewhere in the area.
But since 2013, more than 10pc of all new homes in England have been built on land at the highest risk of flooding.
Already there are 5.2 million homes and businesses at risk, and the Environment Agency predicts the number could increase by 50pc by 2070.
More than half of local planning authorities rarely or never check whether a new development complies with flood risk measures, according to a recent survey by Defra, the Government’s environment department.
Angela Terry, of One Home, a charity that advises homeowners on the impact of climate change, said: “We’re in a warmed world now so the risk has gone up and will keep going up.
“Putting new-builds into flood zones should be avoided if possible, but if it can’t then there must be measures in place.”
As for Tempsford, the village has been pinpointed for development due to its geographic sweet spot between London, Oxford and Cambridge. East West Rail also plans to open a new station, and the village is well-connected to the A1.
