Another dumb SuDS question.

[Pocster]

Just now, Dave Jones said:

 

planners dont design SUDS so it begs the question who come up with your design and who put it to the planners.

Absolutely no idea .

[Alan Ambrose]

So that's two government departments and three quangos including BRE ... why do I think this isn't going to go well?

 

https://www.local.gov.uk/roles-and-responsibilities-relating-suds

 

[Arrenite]

On 07/07/2024 at 16:35, saveasteading said:

Don't agree. It all adds up.

Plus it is easy to do and so an easy win for society.

It’s often not easy to do, and very expensive to boot. It’s a ludicrous requirement for a single dwelling like mine that in the middle of a 2 acre plot.

[Kelvin]

Planning made it a condition for us to put in a large soakaway but it was never checked. One of the folk onsite suggested we just take a pipe right down to the burn because that’s what a lot of folk do because it’s never checked. That’s fine but way below us down in the valley where the water all ends up suffers from flooding a few times per year so I didn’t want to add to that so we put in a large soakaway. Cost very little and was easy to do. 

[FarmerN]

On 08/07/2024 at 15:53, Dave Jones said:

dump them into the foul with suitable crateage as a buffer ? or no mains sewer either ?

Does that not just increase the load on the sewage system , that can’t even cope with current load, especially in very wet weather?

I never  had to face these questions ,being in a rural area with plenty of land to soakaway too. I suppose I’m lucky and so have a different perspective.

We were however required to have a permeable drive way , which we did, with a good sub base of clean stone to allow water to soak through to the sub soil.

Again lucky in having plenty of space to loose soil we had to dig out, rather that pay to have it taken away.

[saveasteading]

1 hour ago, Kelvin said:

suffers from flooding a few times per year so I didn’t want to add to that 

Bravo.

I'd give more than one heart if I could.

.❤️♥️💙

There you are.

 

Unfortunately I haven't yet met a Planner who remotely understood that it all adds up to a flood further down. I suspect their skillset is procedure and doesn't include this sort of thing.

 

2 hours ago, Arrenite said:

very expensive to boot

It can be, but on an appropriate plot with skilled design it is easy enough.

Unfortunately the non-expert designers tend to throw bought 'solutions' at it, at the clients expense of course.

 

On a tiny plot it can be near impossible, so planning permission perhaps was misguided.

 

The cost should come off the plot purchase price, but not enough people will know that, and the agent won't  be saying.

Edited 5 hours ago by saveasteading

[Kelvin]

48 minutes ago, FarmerN said:

Does that not just increase the load on the sewage system , that can’t even cope with current load, especially in very wet weather?

I never  had to face these questions ,being in a rural area with plenty of land to soakaway too. I suppose I’m lucky and so have a different perspective.

We were however required to have a permeable drive way , which we did, with a good sub base of clean stone to allow water to soak through to the sub soil.

Again lucky in having plenty of space to loose soil we had to dig out, rather that pay to have it taken away.

It can do. Case in point is in the town near us. New houses poorly thought through drainage was going into the sewerage system. As soon as we had any sustained rainfall it couldn’t cope so would flood the road at a dip with sewerage right in front of a primary school and houses. This has gone on for several years until Scottish Water eventually addressed it a few months ago. 

[saveasteading]

2 hours ago, Kelvin said:

couldn’t cope so would flood the road

Extreme storms seem certain to increase and the drains were never designed* for them. Add extra housing and roads and it becomes a real problem.

 

* quite a job surveying then calculating flow capacity all the way from thousands of sources to outfall. 

 

I've argued with planners that allowing 5% flow off a new development is still too much compared to the field that was there before, and the reason that rivers flood....but they don't get it, and the developers are happy-ish.

For some reason the water companies don't object either. That may be government pressure as we "need the houses".

 

@FarmerN if you are indeed a farmer, do you know the recommendation that fields be ploughed along the slope, to retain rain? I see many fields  where that is not done And rain will rush doen ghe slope.  Is it a practicality issue?