For the lack of SuDs

 

Last night, I attended a meeting to determine key issues in an update of a certain Climate Strategy 2030. In my break-out group, there seemed to be little consensus about drainage issues related to use of plastic turf and sealed surfaces in gardens. 

Any updated strategy,  is written in the context of  an 'emergency', which this particular borough declared in 2019. As I look around my own borough, I see a number of recently missed opportunities, including the one pictured above. 

It is one of a pair beds, each end of an LTN. The opposing bed does indeed have SuDs capability. You can read more about above and below ground infiltration here, which was a commentary on the Cambridge Road Estate urban-drainage-systems . So why is the larger one, non-SuDs? Why have several trees around the school boundary in the same road - been felled - inevitably affecting the local hydrology? I begin to wonder if the SuDs was created as an offset for this tree loss. So there is no actual gain.

Why do we never seem to make a gain? Are the adopted Climate Strategies  'islands' to be rolled out whenever that box needs ticking? SuDs, in the form of rain gardens or swales are widely adopted in retrofits, regens and new builds across London, especially in  boroughs such as Enfield see Rainscapes The rain garden below, is an example at the Carilion-managed Sutton Estate, Kensington & Chelsea (Open House 2024).


 If not possible to implement these basic public protection measures, how about a  stop on felling trees? (especially in Norbiton where we seem to lose trees at the rate of one a week). Plastic grass or paving  front gardens in a high risk area (Flood Zone 3) should invite a PSPO order (Public Space Protection Order). Public Space Protection Order We need to make some gains.

 

 

 

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