*Community consultation now open*

The community consultation is taking place in December (survey closes 4 January 2021).

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Introduction

Groundwork has been developing a project with City of Stoke on Trent Council, the Environment Agency and Severn Trent Water. The partnership project is the Hilton Road Sustainable Urban Drainage System Scheme (SuDS) designed to tackle localised surface water flooding around Hilton Road Care Home and surrounding residential roads.  The scheme will utilise and enhance three urban green spaces along Lodge Road.

In addition to managing surface water runoff in a sustainable way, the project will deliver enhanced water quality within urban green spaces, which in turn will provide enhanced amenity and biodiversity value.

The project is part of the wider Stoke and Urban Newcastle Rediscovering Its Secret Environment (SUNRISE) Programme.  The proposed scheme of works has been designed Robert Bray Associates, a leading national design agency, in collaboration with project partners and relevant council departments.  We are now carrying out a public consultation, prior to the submission of the planning application, to ensure that all stakeholders including local residents, businesses and landowners, have the opportunity to comment on the scheme.

Download plans 1 & 2 and 3.

Locations can be seen on this map..


Local flood risk

There are longstanding surface water flooding issues along Hilton Road and surrounding streets.  There was a significant flooding event in 2016 at Hilton House Care Home, reported to be from a combination of overland surface water flows and surcharging manholes.

In response to this event, a detailed Flood Risk Report was commissioned which identified the ‘care home site to be at medium-high risk of surface water flooding from several overload flow routes’. A critical recommendation in the report is ‘that this runoff is intercepted as close to its source as possible to reduce the amount of surface water along this flow route’. This recommendation supports the SuDS approach that intercepts and manages runoff close to where water falls as rain.

The current Environment Agency’s flood maps for surface water indicate that the area is at a medium to high risk of surface water flooding and the overland flow route follows the general trend of the area. The high-risk flood area is centred on the Care Home, nearby properties and adjacent highway.

Three locations have been identified along the flow routes where runoff can be intercepted, stored to mitigate flood risk and cleaned to protect the receiving watercourse and significant parts of the SuDS installations.


The scheme

This consultation is on the proposed SuDS scheme designed to reduce flood risk to the Care Home and nearby residential and commercial properties as well as to key transport routes. We are adopting a holistic approach that will deliver multiple benefits in addition to managing surface water runoff volumes. Water quality is enhanced and by keeping water at or near the surface SuDS can contribute to the quality of urban space, amenity, biodiversity and wider community wellbeing.

The topography of each location was reviewed and opportunities for runoff collection assessed and informed by the flow route analysis. Gullies will allow water to move from highways to the identified green spaces.  Silt and pollution are captured as they enter the system, minimising its effect on the landscape and managing everyday rainfall in a dedicated space. The larger basins that accommodate heavy rainfall remain dry in most weather conditions allowing recreational use and maintenance for wildlife.

Location 1 – Lodge Road Amenity Space

This roughly triangular green space is immediately adjacent to Lodge Road. The levels allow runoff from one-half of Lodge Road due to the camber of the road. Runoff is collected as close to the road as possible. The water will then flow slowly along grassy swales to a large grass basin. This basin will only fill during heavy rain and will be available for informal play and recreation most of the time. The design ensures clean water leaves the system at ‘greenfield rate of runoff’.

Location 2 – Lodge Road Park

Runoff form the other side of Lodge Road will be collected in a similar way to the Lodge Road amenity space. The intention is to reduce flow to the combined sewer thereby reducing overflow and surcharge, so rainfall will be directed from Simonburn Avenue into the park. A large basin, protected by a toddler proof fence, will receive everyday rainfall both from housing and from the road. Clean water will flow slowly along the grass swale and around the lower end of the large grass storage basin at the bottom of the park, soaking into the ground or evaporating into the air as part of natural losses.

In very heavy rainfall, water will cascade over a grass bund and flow along the swales to the final basin, which will slowly fill from the bottom towards the upper edge, to no more than 300mm at its deepest. When full it will be easy to safely walk in and out of the water, but this will happen very infrequently. Water will leave slowly through the final outlet and back into the sewer system.

Location 3 – Lodge Road North Open Space

Runoff from this part of Lodge Road ponds at the low point opposite the green link to Stoke Cemetery. This ponding is exacerbated during heavy rainfall when an additional overland flow route develops from the Cemetery. The water will be directed under the path during everyday rainfall into a basin that intercepts silt and pollution.

When the rainfall is very high water will sheet flow over the path into the forebay and then along the swale to the grass basin. This basin will function in a similar way to the Lodge Park basin.  Water will leave through the final outlet.


Programme

We are aiming to submit a planning application in January 2021, and for the works to be on site between July and September 2021


Share your thoughts


Find out more

Contact Julia Watts on 07736 132872.


What are sustainable urban drainage systems?

(Taken from Local Government Associate website)

Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) are designed to manage stormwater locally (as close its source as possible), to mimic natural drainage and encourage its infiltration, attenuation and passive treatment.  SuDS are designed to both manage the flood and pollution risks resulting from urban runoff and to contribute wherever possible to environmental enhancement and place making.

Good SuDS design should follow the SuDS philosophy, which calls for the inclusion of a number of key principles:

  1. A management train – using a number of SuDS components in series and characterising areas into land use and drainage type
  2. Source control – managing runoff as close as possible to where it falls as rain
  3. Managing water on the surface – wherever possible, runoff should be managed on the surface
  4. Early and effective engagement – consider the use of SuDS at the earliest stages of site selection and design.

Good practice with attenuation and slow conveyance type SuDS is to use ‘soft engineered’ surface features rather than underground storage and to align the conveyance train with exceedance flood routing[1].