nowtie

Hi Conor, Yes there was a bungalow there which myself and husband demolished. When we had it CCTV'd, the surface water from that one was going into the ground and then I guess into Highways drain eventually. I'm less worried about that one (as you say, I think I have a riparian right to discharge how it was before but with improvements in run off rate) but I'm more worried about the other detached dwelling in the garden of the bungalow which would be new connection?

Thanks Jilly. Prob is that we've already submitted this alternative SUDS attenuation and reduced outflow into Highways drain stating that the perc test failed??! I mean OMG if I had known how AWFUL it is trying to deal with Highways and get them to agree to meet with us then I would have done 20 different holes on the site! Were you 5 places at greater depths? Our two holes were 1.2m and 2.4m so deep enough? I've been told since we're on Mercia mudstone there's no chance of making the perc tests work? Should we try again just to double check? Would it just be a no if we went back to planning and say "Oh actually, sorry it DOES work after all" I mean that's just not feasible right?

Thank you for your reply. Oh wow that's lucky they approved discharging the condition. We have proposed almost the exact same thing but have still have received a no from planning and highways. There's basically a land drain from a farmers field behind our site which pipes through a culvert underneath the site and then straight into a Highways gully in front of the site (which can't cope during storm conditions as it is) I think our issue is that since the road is like a river (as a result of the land drains) they're reluctant to discharge our planning condition. So my last ditch attempts are just trying to meet with them on-site but they won't meet so I'm in stalemate sat on a site which we can't progress! I'm guessing now we've said a perc test has failed we can't do a u-turn and try different holes and try find something that might work? Just out of options

Hi Dave, This was our back up plan but Wessex water has said no based on the fact they can see a Highways gully drain directly in front of the property? OK thank you regarding the perc test but surely just "making a perc test pass" on clay soil is only going to mean issues for the gardens of both houses in the future during storms no? Many thanks

Wondering if anyone has any last ditch suggestions. We have full planning permission to demolish an existing bungalow (I bought it 2yrs ago, previous owners in there for 40+yrs) and replace as well as build a detached house in the garden. Woop woop I thought.....but there's a condition that we need to discharge around the disposal of surface water. (foul is fine, there's a main foul only sewer to the rear of the property) 6 months ago I thought well that's not a problem, we've proposed a soakaway system under the drive except it all started going wrong when the percolation test failed. SO I went to the water company as it said if all your SUDS fail we could approach them to discharge our surface water into their foul only sewer. They have said no as on the maps they can see there's a highways gully drain outside the property (not a stormwater drain) We then went to highways and they've just said no as there's current flooding on the road and they're saying we'll contribute more to it. We're now trying to get a meeting with them onsite so we can try persuade them otherwise but we're clutching at straws here I think as the road has a history of flooding and the parish council are all over it with highways maintenance teams so they're fully aware there's an issue with flooding on the road. Just as a sidnote, we have CCTV cameras done to see where the existing bungalow surface water was going and it was going into the ground (so effectively into the highways drain- although Highways are saying that connection should have never been there) So in short, we're completely STUCK. Any ideas? Half of me is thinking...perhaps we can re-do the perc test in different areas on the site (dug to 1.2 and 2.4m deep) and see if anything works? Borehole soakaway? Although ridiculously expensive and we're on Mercia mudstone so have been told by a few sources it just isn't permeable. Aggggggghhhhh.