IT seems utterly bizarre that with the heavily regulated planning regime we have in this country that a developer could start to erect a housing estate without first agreeing the drainage arrangements for the site.

That appears to be the case in Northallerton's Bankhead Road where Barratt is building a new housing estate.

Barratt has planning permission, of course, but the details of the surface water drainage scheme have yet to be worked out with the local planning authority - in this case Hambleton District Council.

Local residents who suffered in the recent flooding suffered by the town were convinced at a public meeting on Wednesday night that the erection of houses on the land opposite their homes had directly contributed to the devastating flood of water which swept through their homes.

It would difficult to establish whether the residents' fears have any substance. As has been suggested, the freak weather of November would probably have caused the problems whatever the state of the drainage on the site in question.

But the question remains because of this apparent loophole in the planning regulations which allowed Barratt to proceed without all the loose ends of the permission being secured.

And sadly that means it may remain as something a red herring as investigations get under way into the factors which made the flooding in Northallerton so sudden and hence so difficult for both residents and businesses to defend their premises against.

While the Bankhead Road issue may not be central to the problems of last month, the general issue of housing development in the town may be.

The number of new estates has virtually doubled the size of the town in the last 30 years while the fundamental drainage pattern, particularly affecting the Sun and Turker becks, has remained untouched.