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INDUSTRY COMMENT BSEE


Shaun Pentlow, Associate Director of Rolton Group discusses the adoption of private sewers.


ust over five years ago, on 1st October 2011, the adoption of private sewers became law with the Water Industry Schemes for Adoption of Private Sewers Regulations 2011. As a result, the maintenance of private sewers connected to the public sewer network on or before the 1st July 2011 became the responsibility of water and sewerage companies. These changes resulted in the management, responsibility as well as the cost being transferred to the water and sewerage companies.


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Whilst the initial transfer was in relation to solely sewers which connected to an adoptable drainage system, it was also identified that pumping stations would transfer at a later date. Following initial implementation in 2011, an uncertain period followed. Whilst the law had been introduced, the standards as set by the Sewers for Adoption 7th Edition had not. In fact, they were implemented 18 months later, meaning that many new drainage installations were not constructed to new adoption standards.


Furthermore, when the Sewers for Adoption 7th Edition was published, Water and Sewerage authorities did not insist on its implementation (other than Welsh Water). A key reason for this is likely to be the additional


One step closer to a sewer solution ‘


resource required by the business to carry out the necessary checks on a scheme.


Take, for example, one of our projects undertaken to the standards, in which Anglian Water indicated that what previously would have taken two hours to check, took all day!


Section 42 of the Flood and Water Management Act, which legislated that all sewers were to be adopted by water and sewerage authorities, was to be implemented with the introduction of the SuDS Approval Body but this has been delayed with a partial implementation reduced to planning consultation as of April 2015. This requires all new developments to consider SuDS for developments greater than 10 dwellings and these will be commented on by the Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA).


This has put great onus on LLFAs to undertake consultations on a significant amount of planning applications and in a timely manner within the planning process. It has taken some time for authorities to get up to speed but the process is now working reasonably well, although with alternative opinions within different LLFA, it is proving to be a challenge for those involved in different regions.


We have now passed the date at which water and sewerage


authorities take on the responsibility of private pumping stations (October 2016) and included within this section of the transfer are pumping stations previously under S104 approvals (prior to July 2011) and connected to an existing adopted sewer.


Although there are certain exceptions, the previous owners that knew about this date, and were holding off making those costly improvements to effect adoption, have now had the responsibility and the cost burden removed. So what’s next? At some point the Sewers for Adoption 7th Edition and section 42 of the Flood and Water Management Act will need to be implemented, and the timescales for implementation have not yet been clearly defined.


It is likely however that during the current uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the government’s unwillingness to limit development potential, that it will not be implemented during the current government term. Unfortunately the most likely outcome therefore is that the current situation will continue until late 2020 at the earliest. uRolton Group provides a Flood Risk Assessment and SuDS design service, which is required to support the majority of planning applications for construction projects. Visit http://www.rolton.com/


At some point the


Sewers for Adoption 7th Edition and section 42 of the Flood and Water Management Act will need to be implemented, and the timescales for implementation have not yet been clearly defined. It is likely however that during the current uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the government’s unwillingness to limit development potential, that it will not be implemented during the current government term.


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BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER DECEMBER 2016 21


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