1 REPORT ON MORRISONS’ SUBMISSION TO THE GLOUCESTER COUNCIL PLANNING COMMITTEE TO CONSTRUCT A PETROL/FUEL FILLING STATION AT THE RIDGE AND FURROW PUBLIC HOUSE SITE “Demolition of the Ridge and Furrow Public House and the erection of a petrol filling station to include sales kiosk, canopy, 6 no. fuel pumps, forecourt, underground fuel tanks, carwash, alterations to boundary treatments and associated access arrangements. at Ridge And Furrow Glevum Way, Gloucester GL4 4BL”. R.J.Cavaney BSc, MSc (hons), MSc (Mining & exp geol), AusIMM (f), SEG, GSA, SME. Consulting Geologist, Abbeymead, Gloucester, January 2014. 2 FRONTISPEICE NH M5 M5 A M TV H An oblique aerial Landsat view look ing southeast showing the setting of Morrisons superstore in th e middle centre (red ‘M’), part of the Heron Wa y Prim ary school (red ‘H’) right foreground. The Cotswold escarpment is in the background – a feature of natural scenic beauty along which the fa med Cotswold Way runs. The escarpment is capped by limestone and underlain by sands and clays that are prone to slumping. Nut Hill is shown as ‘NH’ (t urquoise) in the background. It is capped by harder silts and marlstone with Lower Lias Clay beneat h. The Ash Path (turquoise ‘A ’) runs along the Wheatridge to the right. This is cap ped by higher level glacial outwash terrace gravels on Lower Lias Clays. The Twyver River valley (turquoise ‘TV ’) is in the centre and left and flows over the Lower Lias Clays. The Ridge and Furrow pub is immediat ely to the left of the roundabout (red oval) back from Morrisons car park. The M5 motorway (Turquoise ‘M5’) r uns across the field of view along the edge of the residential area in the background. (The colours for the letters have no code significance but have been chosen for best visibility.) 3 CONTENTS 1 Introduction............................................................................................................................................ 4 2 Location ................................................................................................................................................. 5 3 Building a Petrol Filling Station on the site........................................................................................... 6 3.1 Traffic Congestion Concerns .......................................................................................................... 6 3.1.1 The Effect on Schools and Pupil Safety................................................................................... 9 3.1.2 Traffic Accidents.................................................................................................................... 10 3.2 Parking Concerns.......................................................................................................................... 13 3.3 Noise and Light Pollution ............................................................................................................. 13 3.4 Wildlife Concerns. ........................................................................................................................ 14 3.5 Archaeology.................................................................................................................................. 15 3.6 Risk of flooding ............................................................................................................................ 16 3.7 Local Geology............................................................................................................................... 20 3.7.1 Outline of the Geology........................................................................................................... 20 3.7.2 The River Terraces................................................................................................................. 23 3.7.3 The Water Table..................................................................................................................... 25 3.8 Geotechnical Considerations......................................................................................................... 26 3.8.1 Landslides .............................................................................................................................. 26 3.8.2 Shrinking and Swelling Clay ................................................................................................. 27 3.8.3 Thaumasite Sulphate Attack (TSA) ....................................................................................... 33 3.9 Risk of Contamination. ................................................................................................................. 37 3.10 Previous Applications for a Petrol Filling Station ...................................................................... 39 4 Summary and Discussion..................................................................................................................... 39 5 CONCLUSIONS.................................................................................................................................. 43 6 RECOMMENDATIONS..................................................................................................................... 45 7 REFERENCES..................................................................................................................................... 45 4 1 Introduction The actions proposed by Morrisons can be divided into two intended acts and will be treated as such in this report. The two intended acts are;- • Firstly, to demolish the Ridge and Furrow Pub House (pub). This is the subject of another report by the author. • Secondly, to build a Petrol/Fuel Filling Station (PFS) with attendant and ancillary structures on the site. This is the subject of the present report. As this report contains technical sections, some explanations have been expanded to enable the members of the Planning Committee (and other readers) to understand geotechnical aspects of the geohazards present. To assist in this the writer has resorted to liberally inserted diagrams and illustrations. This has been done to assist the reader to visualise situations, aspects and potential events concerning the local geomorphology, drainage and geology. Figure 1. View of the Ridge and Furrow pub south side showing one part of th e outdoor seating areas and a segment of the playground area in the right background where there is more seating. 5 2 Location The Ridge and Furrow public house (pub) is located at 20 Glevum Way, Abbeydale, GL4 4BL. The OSBG coordinates are SO 86030 East 15810 North, and NOT at (3)86032 East, (2)15740 North as in the Gloucester City Council Planning Permission Application Form as lodged by Rapleys LLP on behalf of Morrisons. The latter position places the building at the veterinary animal hospital location some 118m @ 350° True out of position. This may invalidate the application. Figure 2. Map showing the location of the Ridge and Furrow pub in Gloucester. The light blue circle is at one mile radius. The light grey represents residential areas making up Gloucester city. The frontispiece and above and figure 4 below are oblique aerial views and show the setting in Gloucester and Abbeydale. The topography is shown with the Ridge and Furrow site on the banks of the Twyver River. This river is confined by terrace edges some two metres high. The southern terrace edge bounds the Ridge and Furrow site. The Twyver River flows to Gloucester and as can be seen from Figure 4 it divides downstream from the Ridge and Furrow. One branch flows through the Saintbridge Balancing pond to Tredworth and Gloucester Park. The other branch flows through Coney Hill, is culverted between Trier Way and Barton Street, and flows under Gloucester city. 6 3 Building a Petrol Filling Station on the site The second part of Morrisons intended action is to replace the Ridge and Furrow Public House with a Petrol/fuel Filling Station (PFS) with attendant structures including a car wash. There are concerns about several aspects that warrant commenting on. Other submissions already lodged validly raise similar concerns about part or all of the proposals by Morrisons. 3.1 Traffic Congestion Concerns Congestion caused by an increase in traffic is a major concern. That there would be an increase in traffic in the area by replacing the pub with a PFS is beyond doubt. Simple logic suggests this. Yet the Bryan G Hall traffic assessment (by Mr M. Crabtree 13 May 2013) submitted on behalf of Morrisons deduces on the basis of limited observations made in winter that traffic would actually be reduced by replacing the pub with a PFS. It factors in, amongst other things, deductions based on “linked journeys”. Again, simple logic says if there are fewer cars visiting the PFC than would visit the pub, it would not have enough custom and would therefore be uneconomic. Most people walk to the pub; everyone drives to a petrol filling station! The modelling software used (Arcady) may well be employing faulty logic in the modelling techniques applied. It is also possible that the sample taken was insufficient and not statistically meaningful. The Ridge and Furrow pub was actually closed – outside normal opening hours for part of the Bryan G Hall observation times! Certain of the deductions appear to be derived from apparently similar situations in other and distant locations. Application of such figures may not be valid especially if the baseline established for the Ridge and Furrow pub, or for that matter on other remote locations, is dependant on too small