nowtie

This all sounds like what we're proposing but we've had a no from Wessex water to overflow the surface water into the foul hence why we're now stuck

Hi, yes they're civil engineers....see extract from their website and the contact who is working on it X is a privately-owned business offering civil engineering design, construction and maintenance services to domestic, commercial and public-sector clients. Civil Design Engineer with 18 years experience working as an infrastructure engineer in the UK and over 4 years experience working as a Civil Environmental Engineer in X I had a no from 2 x previous civil engineers who just said there wasn't a solution they could sign off so I went with the above engineers. Would you mind if I PM you the details?

Thanks for this. This is exactly what my husband suggested BUT our drainage engineers didn't seem willing to sign it off? We therefore went ahead with their idea of attenuation tank plus slow release into Highways gully drain but as I said before Highways has now said no and I'm running out of money! Could we put a plan together ourselves as the above and submit it? Just as a sidenote we're about 1.2m above the road. This is a pre-commencement condition that we can't seem to get discharged.

Hi I think they're suggesting I try different test holes in different locations? We're going to try again next week. My husband is a farmer/builder and so does a lot of land drainage on farm and said he can make it soak away from both properties by digging a 90m french drain in length all the way down the site (it's long and narrow) if we did do attenuation/soakaway option. Well we have now demolished the bungalow but CCTV reported it was just going into the ground...so ultimately Highways gully drain outside the front of the property. We've been trying to say that we'll reduce the uncontrolled run off rate and better what is there at the moment. This would be all fine but we also have permission to build another detached dwelling in the garden of where the bungalow was so this one is the one we'd struggle with for the surface water. Land is 0.4 acre and it's awkward shape, very narrow. I attach the location plan. Blue is the land I own. Red outline is new detached dwelling. To left is existing bungalow which weve had full planning to demolish (done) and re-build. The slope is marginal but it does slope gently down towards the narrow section (hence wanting to put a linear french drain along the whole length of site...but it has to be 5m from highway so not even sure if this is possible) Thanks for your help

OK this is great, are you sure?? Do you know of anyone who has done this before?! I'm going to tell husband we'll re-do the perc tets (he is saying "I told you we should have done this in the first place") It's been MASSIVELY costly so far with having to get drainage engineers involved (who it seems now they have their money have washed their hands of the whole thing and are telling me just to wait for Highways to get back to me...meanwhile the planning consultant is telling me we might never get a definitive yes from them to discharge into their gully since it's overloaded anyway...)

Roger that, thanks Joe We've got our own JCB (well husbands) Already gone down 1.2m and 2.4m but will try other areas on the site and at different depths. Hopefully they won't question the U-turn?

Ahh that's really interesting to read actually. I keep asking our drainage engineers the feasibility of going back to Wessex and they keep saying it's not an option. Wessex has a SUDS hierarchy which we have followed and yes it does seem in their policy that could be an option to discharge IF we have exhausted all the hierarchy but they're currently saying no due to the Highways gully. So I have emailed Wessex to see if there is any manoeuvrability so thank you so much. I'll keep you posted.

Thank you so much. Is there anyway I can private message you with the report? I've managed to save a PDF of the BGS report. Many thanks

OK thanks Dave. You don't think they'd question why we're re-submitting the perc tests as successful when we'd already submitted them as not?

Ahh is that a foul only sewer? OK we've had a no from Wessex Water to discharge into their foul only sewer due to the fact that there's a gully drain in front of the property and said we need to discuss with Highways. Highways have said no. Perhaps it's worth going back to Wessex? I'm not sure what you mean by "looks like you are at combined sewer stage"? We don't have a combined sewer anywhere near the site? Thanks for the drainage hierarchy. Yes we have one of those but still struggling!

Hi Alan Thanks for responding. I have just gone to the BGS website and it looks like there's something on the same road but I'm struggling to interpret the data, can you help? Plus it looks like a well and not a borehole soakaway? Reference: ST23NW12 Name: XXXXXX Water Well Reference: ST23/2 Precision: ± 10 METRES Length (m): Unknown Date: Easting: 324550 Northing: 137700 Scan Quality: not Entered Record: Scan Who could do a soil investigation? I've already spoken to a few geotechnical engineers who have told me a borehole soakaway wouldn't work there (although have spoken to another who says it would)

That's the issue, there are no other options left now other than re-do the perc tests all over the site and try find one that works?

Hi, thanks. I spoke to a guy from Rainwater Harvesting and he said attenuation and rainwater combined would still need an overflow solution to somewhere when there is excess water so couldn't suggest anything other than try a borehole soakaway (which would be at least £15-20K PLUS I've been told it won't work so I'm trying to avoid going down that route) Could we re-submit perc test figures to planning that do work if we try different test holes across the site?

Good question! In hindsight we should have persevered with take soakaway/storage crate solution. What are your thoughts on us going back to planning and saying we have now dug different test holes with different results (which work)? Or is that ridiculous idea?

Thanks but unfortunately Wessex Water are saying no as there's a Highways gully drain outside of our property and they've said due to this we've got to ask Highways for permission (who have also said no) Who is SE? We already have drainage engineers on board and it sounds v similar to what we were proposing to Highways. With your rainwater harvesting with attenuation, where did the excess surface water go when the tank was full? Surely watering the garden and flushing the loos won't get rid of all the surface water year round? This is our issue with it, we don't have permeable soil, any watercourse or stormwater drain nearby. Only the foul only sewer (that was the no from Wessex). Can these attenutation tanks be physically pumped out as an alternative I wonder?