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ROUND TABLE REPORT
“Wherever there have been successful large-scale SuDS schemes internationally is where there have been massive public awareness campaigns” Steve Wilson, Environmental Protection Group
planted systems whose roots help to control silts and sediments, further cleaning the water supply. Those chemicals which cannot be filtered by planting remain trapped in the soil, rather than entering groundwater reserves. The final two Pillars are Amenity and Biodiversity – two inter- related benefits of SuDS, firstly the ability of SuDS to provide a whole new public area within developments for residents to see, and use. Nature-based SuDS schemes are a proven way to produce species biodiversity on sites, and thereby help meet the requirement for a 10% uplift in Biodiversity Net Gain on new schemes.
Resident buy-in We asked all of our attendees to provide a question or comment for the group to tackle. Steve Wilson of EPG suggested that identifying how SuDS contributes to biodiversity was a key issue to assess. Martin Shaw from Meadfleet made the case for including SuDS as not just a functional necessity, but as an amenity in housing schemes, and how features such as swales, filter strips and of course trees add value to residents’ lives. He told the delegates: “As the SuDS systems mature, the visual amenity is far greater than having a concrete basin or channel; we get our ecologists involved to improve the site’s biodiversity, in one example in Epping we have linked a balancing pond with a woodland, with native planting trees around it, and have a wildflower meadow next to that, as well as lots of infrastructure for small mammals and birds.” He continues: “It’s matured into a lovely place where families spend a day out, and we have bat walks. SuDS can become a massively valuable part of the development.” (Chris Carr offered the solution of instead of mown margins around ponds, wetland margins so that water is further slowed, inflitrating into the ground rather than running into the pond.) Developments can look different to what has traditionally been expected by residents, with longer, wilder grasses which can suggest a lack of maintenance, and produce a stigma. Delegates asserted that education was essential to combat pushback against schemes which are driven by lack of knowledge. Steve Wilson of EPG said that “from international experience, wherever there have been large-scale SuDS schemes are successful is where there have been massive public awareness campaigns so people are educated about them,” and warned that currently in the UK this was “non-existent,” so education is in severe need of improvement. “The Government really needs to get to grips with it and make people aware of why it’s there.” Is SuDS genuinely a ‘win win’ for small developers and their customers, and could the Four Pillars be potentially easier to achieve on some smaller semi-rural schemes, than their more space- compromised urban counterparts?). Perhaps more importantly, who is driving SuDS adoption in residential schemes, are customers so unaware of the benefits that developers have to sell it to them, whether or not there’s any commercial advantages for the housebuilder per se?
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ENGINEERING-LED? Steve Wilson of environmental engineers EPG explained that SuDS shouldn’t be overcomplicated, and engineers needed to work with architects
Chris Carr posed the question as to whether developer clients should include SuDS as part of marketing to customers, given that his firm “embraces it as a positive.” Sue Illman gave the view that it should be included in the booklets which housebuilders tend to provide their customers when they get the keys, explaining features of their new home.
Chris responded that while “education could sometimes be seen as lecturing, in this case it’s really positive,” due to the host of benefits that SuDS can bring developments. He added: “We have to have a USP as a small builder against the volume housebuilders, but it needs to be “layered with things like open space, biodiversity and the Future Homes Standard, it can’t be just an engineer designing for SuDS.”
Charlotte Markey questioned whether homeowners “are pushing from the bottom up to get SuDS implemented; we all love something when it’s put in, there are loads of case studies of beautiful schemes, but have people aesthetically got used to such a poor baseline that they’re not actually demanding it from housebuilders?” Chris Carr commented: “We have to sell it to them,” and Matt Clutton from Cameron Homes agreed there is a long way to go with consumer buy-in, given that “a lot of people are moving towards astroturf for their gardens.” Maintenance and who would be responsible is a key issue that was raised several times in the debate – Chris Carr admitted that while maintenance of ponds was straightforward, when it came to long stretches of swales for example next to highways, this was much more challenging. “We might have two or three thousand metres of swale.” Martin from Meadfleet said that getting maintenance right is also key to helping residents become more accepting of these new features – he said that regular planting, such as poppies in one recent Meadfleet case study, “shows people that the area is being looked after.”
Clients & SuDS awareness Steve Wilson shared his experience of being called in to train two volume housebuilders’ planning and buying teams on SuDS design, “because they recognised the commercial advantage,” and how he showed them “that it would be a lot cheaper if you get it right from
ADF JANUARY 2024
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