EAST Devon District Council has ordered a developer to comply with a condition of its approval of 50 homes In a flood beset village within six weeks.
The council previously warned that there is a "very real threat" to Feniton becoming more vulnerable to flooding if Wainhomes does not "urgently" install two attenuation tanks near the development on Louvigny Close, for surface water run-off to relieve flooding.
The local authority has now served Wainhomes with a Breach of Condition Notice for failing to comply with the planning condition, when they granted approval of the scheme on appeal in 2012.
Due to an overloaded sewerage network and surface water from surrounding fields, some residents in the village have, over the years, been forced out of their homes due to flooding for months on end.
Residents and councillors claim their village has been "under siege" from developers, with a so-called super inquiry in January seeing the district council fighting three appeals for a total of more than 200 homes, winning two but losing one for 32 homes.
A crew from The One Show visited Feniton this month and presenter Lucy Siegle interviewed council leader, Councillor Paul Diviani about the issue of flooding and development in the village.
The programme is likely to be aired this month.
District ward member Councillor Susie Bond, said: "The condition requires installation of two attenuation tanks, which are designed to capture the surface water runoff from the site to a level which would be 10 per cent better than is currently seen.
"In other words, the tanks would mitigate the effects of concreting over a greenfield site and give a marginal improvement on the amount of surface water which comes down from the development into the rest of the village.
"These conditions are not placed lightly on development.
"In this case, given that Feniton has a long and well-documented history of flooding, this particular condition is crucial.
"The very robust response by the council is to be applauded in the light of cynical indifference on the part of Wainhomes to the plight of the existing community in the village."
