Drainage ditch

[mjc55]

We have so many things to think about on our build and I have just turned my mind to the need to cope with rainwater.

 

So currently the land we are going to build on was part of a larger slice of land that was split up about 20 years or so ago.  Originally (up to the 1960's) it contained a pub and its garden.  The pub burned down in the 60's and was replaced with a house.  When the house was sold to Salisbury Diocese in the early 2000's a fence was built to split off the land that we subsequently bought last year.  Much more about this can be read in this thread here.

 

At the rear of our plot (and the houses on both sides) runs a drainage ditch, which periodically gets very wet.  The land itself is very impermeable (Peterborough Member Mudstone) and runs at a slight fall to the rear.

 

So our proposed design is for a single storey (green) flat roofed house.  The plot is around a quarter of an acre in total and we are planning for a gravel drive to the front of the house.

 

I am certain that a soakaway would not work, the ground is very impermeable (so much so that in a place where I got the digger stuck the track was still full of water well into May)

 

My thought process is that we would be able to run any excess rainwater from the green roof back into the drainage ditch, and maybe the same for the drive.  Does this sound like a feasible solution that would be accepted by Building Control?

 

Edit:  I meant to say that the whole village only got a main drainage system about 20 years or so, so for the moment I am assuming that they are foul only, not combined.

Edited July 7 by mjc55

[saveasteading]

Does the ditch flow to anywhere? If it simply holds water then it is acting as a very long soakaway plus there is evaporation .

If it does flow, then where? Maybe flooding somewhere.

You could dig a parallel ditch as a new retention system plus soakaway. Or dig a pond. Ponds hold back storm water, have large areas for petvolation and evaliration, plus plants will drink it.

 

[mjc55]

3 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

Does the ditch flow to anywhere? If it simply holds water then it is acting as a very long soakaway plus there is evaporation .

If it does flow, then where? Maybe flooding somewhere.

You could dig a parallel ditch as a new retention system plus soakaway. Or dig a pond. Ponds hold back storm water, have large areas for petvolation and evaliration, plus plants will drink it.

 

I don't think it does flow anywhere tbh!  I will post a picture later to indicate the lie of the land, just going to the pictures in 5 minutes!

[Alan Ambrose]

Most ditches flow somewhere, wouldn’t have been much incentive to dig it otherwise. Look at a detailed contour map and maybe take a walk or two and you should be able to see how the local area drains. Talk to the neighbours and they’ll add some more info on the history and behaviour over time.

[mjc55]

3 hours ago, Alan Ambrose said:

Most ditches flow somewhere, wouldn’t have been much incentive to dig it otherwise. Look at a detailed contour map and maybe take a walk or two and you should be able to see how the local area drains. Talk to the neighbours and they’ll add some more info on the history and behaviour over time.

Popping over there today will double check.

 

[mjc55]

This gives an idea of the ditch.  The area on the left in front of the field boundary.

 

I am going there today and will get a better picture.  I suspect there may well be more water in there today after the rain of the last few days.

 

 

[mjc55]

This was in March, you can see standing water in the ditch!

 

[kandgmitchell]

Is that a drainage ditch or simply a boundary ditch and bank arrangement? Not an unusual feature in the countryside where owners wanted to define land boundaries cheaply, dig it out and pile it up and plant a hedge along the top. Probably not meant to be there to drain anything but just being lower lying collected run-off.

[mjc55]

Went over and spoke to neighbours a couple  of days ago and the ditch runs all along behind the houses/land on the road, see below for sketch, green line is ditch. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Alan Ambrose]

Well done. I would think there's a good chance the whole things drains downhill somewhere too. Always interesting to find out. I assume you didn't get any complaints / info about flooding since you didn't mention it.

 

If not, then probably BC / EA will be OK with you draining rainwater to it. Maybe via an attenuation set-up of some kind - the latter depending on how much they're on top of SuDS / concerned about flooding.

 

[mjc55]

4 hours ago, Alan Ambrose said:

Well done. I would think there's a good chance the whole things drains downhill somewhere too. Always interesting to find out. I assume you didn't get any complaints / info about flooding since you didn't mention it.

 

If not, then probably BC / EA will be OK with you draining rainwater to it. Maybe via an attenuation set-up of some kind - the latter depending on how much they're on top of SuDS / concerned about flooding.

 

No complaints no.  The chap in the house where the ditch runs behind and along to the road said that on occasion there is a bit of water at the back.  Sometimes he does get water in the ditch that runs towards the road - at the end closest to road.