TECHNICAL FEATURE
SuDS – the great drainage dream
Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) aims are right on the money - JON MAGUIRE, GROUNDWATER DYNAMICS
The Local Government Association, whose members after all control planning, describe SuDS thus:
Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) are designed to manage surface water as close to its source as possible, to mimic natural drainage and encourage its infiltration, attenuation and passive treatment.
SuDS even has a Tier System that says storm water discharge should be:
Tier 1 Into the ground Tier 2 To a surface water body
Tier 3 To a surface water sewer, highway drain or another drainage system
Tier 4 To a combined sewer.
However, the Tier system is contained in a document called ‘Non-Statutory Technical Standards for Sustainable Drainage: Practice Guidance’. This hardly implies any need for compliance and despite planning guidance advising developers to prove why they ended up applying for a non-Tier 1 system, it only needs a developer to say that no Tier 1 solution was available and the planning moves to lower Tiers.
From drought and flood resilience, to recharging aquifers and water courses, to protecting micro eco-systems, SuDS aims are laudable. With climate change impacts you could even upgrade this to ‘imperative’.
SuDS reality is the real money doesn’t care
“Why should we try any of this sustainable housebuilding stuff? No one is asking us to do it. The Government just wants us to build lots of houses, our shareholders just want us to make a profit, and house buyers just want an affordable house.” That was the input of a major housebuilder to the Bricks & Water 2018 Policy Connect report.
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Speak o a Consulting Engineer about drainage and they will say that cost is the imperative in drainage design.
The cheapest drainage system is one that can collect storm water and chuck it into a sewer. This is a result for the developer because once the water is in the sewer it is no longer their problem as to what happens next. And as long as the planning system lets them get away with it, they will keep doing it.
SuDS has to go legal
Apologies for using the Covid word but it has achieved some unexpected side-shows. SuDS is one such. We all now pretty much understand that ‘guidance’ is not the same as ‘legal’. Whilst SuDS flip-flops around in a flood of countless, seemingly never-ending planning decisions that favour concrete, pipes and sewers for storm water drainage, the SuDS ‘guidance’ remains toothless and largely irrelevant to the construction sector. That’s a shame and an admission of policy failure.
Maybe a piece of Matt ‘Hancockesque’ diplomacy is needed. He soon realised there’s no bite in his belief in ‘civil duty’, whereas legal
obligation and fines worked wonders.
SuDS needs to reinvent itself Its aims are fine. It’s relevance to the construction industry is missing. It can only have a future when it addresses below the ground drainage at source. Pretty above ground landscaping does not drain a built construction site. Rain water was made for below the ground soils – that’s how nature works. By focusing on below the ground and gaining traction with Local Authority planning, the construction sector will have to relearn SuDS, allowing new solutions to emerge. We can even show how our Tier 1 drainage system can actually make more money for developers, putting the economic argument against SuDS to the sword.
About our SuDS 2021 campaign
This takes the form of a series of emails, setting out how we see the market positioning of SuDS, its future, its efficacy, how we use it to improve economic value of construction sites and consumer behavioural dynamics that it can harness to change its future.
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