As Sue Illman, the LI President, speaks out, we join her in voicing our concerns about the latest delay to implementation of Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act.


The continued delay to this legislation effectively means that the Pitt Review and Flood and Water Act might as well not have happened, as regards Sustainable Drainage.

We have a client wanting to build a housing development on a difficult site.  Despite repeated approaches by the developer and design team, the authority is unwilling to consider a sustainable drainage scheme which would result in positive flood reduction measures (over and above containing surface water from the development) for a village which was badly damaged by flooding in 2007.

Adoption itself would not be required for probably two years, but the authority will not implement any mechanism to approve the SuDs design until obliged to by implementation of Schedule 3.  As that could now be April 2015, or, who knows...  the developer is having to consider whether to develop the site, or whether to implement a traditional drainage system, with all of the ridiculous negative aspects that entails.

We, and others, including developers and local authorities trying to do the right thing to prevent future damage to the environment, and misery of flooded landowners, are increasingly frustrated by this outrageous delay.

By Bill Blackledge CMLI
member of LI Technical Committee