Involved in implementing SuDS in new developments in England – we need your help
Robin Campbell, Associate at Arup.
Like all drainage systems, SuDS components need to be inspected and managed to ensure efficient operation and reduce the risk of failures. Institutional arrangements for the ongoing maintenance of piped conventional drainage are clear. Arrangements for securing ongoing maintenance are less clear for components such as ponds, swales and wetlands.
Planning Practice Guidance obliges planners to satisfy themselves that a development that includes a sustainable drainage system has appropriate proposed minimum standards of operation and that there are clear arrangements in place for ongoing maintenance.
There are many options that will allow the successful operation and maintenance of a SuDS component for the lifetime of a development. With each option there are risks, and tools for planners to ensure these risks are mitigated.
We know this. Back in 2015 we pulled together a Susdrain Fact Sheet setting this out with a couple of case studies.
What have LLFAs and LPAs developed in terms of an approach to planning conditions and obligations? But what has been your experience? What’s actually being used on the ground? What do you find works?