Time is running out to have your say on new planning guidance to help reduce flood risk. Anyone interested in practical measures to mitigate flood risk can take part in the current consultation on new guidance to encourage developers, architects and landscapers to design sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) for new developments around the Island. The aim is to explain how to include sustainable drainage schemes in developments and choose the most appropriate system to use. When adopted, this supplementary planning document (SPD) will help to inform planning decisions in the future and guide developers towards sustainable water management solutions. The consultation runs until Friday 8th March. Sustainable drainage systems mimic natural processes by storing and treating rainwater close to where it falls. They can also improve air and water quality, increase biodiversity and create spaces for public amenity and recreation. Methods include diverting water off the highway and onto nearby green space through a shallow trench or ‘swale’; creating ‘rain gardens’, installing paving that allows water to drain through and temporary storage tanks that release the water slowly back into the watercourse. Using these methods slows down water flow and reduces the volume of surface water runoff. SuDS can create new wildlife habitats such as ponds, water features and green roofs and increase areas of vegetation to ‘mop up’ the water and help it evaporate naturally into the atmosphere. Councillor Paul Fuller, Cabinet member for planning, coastal protection and flooding, said:
“With extreme weather becoming more common we must find ways of reducing flood risk. “Part of that work is to ensure that new development is designed to manage surface water in the best possible way to help reduce the likelihood of flooding in our communities. Taking a better approach to sustainable drainage systems will improve the resilience of our drainage and sewer infrastructure, while reaping these broader benefits. “This draft SPD provides essential guidance and advice on how new development can do that. “I would encourage people to share their views on the document and look forward to being able to use it when making planning decisions. This will ensure new development manages surface water in the best way for our Island.”
More information can be found at https://www.iow.gov.uk/environment-and-planning/planning/local-plan/supplementary-planning-documents/. Comments can be submitted by email to [email protected] or by post to Planning Services, Seaclose Office, Fairlee Road, Newport, PO30 2QS. Copies are available to view at reception at both Seaclose Offices and County Hall.
Stop removing trees and start planting them. There’s a start.
stop building houses – as it takes away natures ability to soak up the rain on the fields that the houses are built on.
Stop putting concrete down
Well I am sure that if all the farmers took more responsibility for the water run off from their fields by digging or clearing their ditches as they used to it would help us all for sure…
If there was more proactive cleaning of drains, gullies and minor waterways, rather than the present reactive (sometimes) approach, the water would have somewhere to go. Add to the mix, yet more housing trying to utilise the system that was designed for a lot less urban development, and we have an ongoing recipe for yet more flooding.
Looking at rainfall charts for the UK going back to the early 1900s, the average rainfall per year across the UK was pretty much the same then as it is today.
So, what’s changed?
More houses, definitely; more people, definitely; less dredging of rivers etc, maybe, I don’t know; less maintenance of drainage systems, probably; fewer reservoirs to hold water, again probably.
There’s possibly other reasons too, but these seem like the obvious ones. I’m not sure that ‘rain gardens’, more water butts etc are really the answer.
I couldn’t find data for rainfall on the IW going back to the 1900s, but it’s probably much like the UK average.
Average rainfall is not the problem, but instead it is the increasing frequency of individual massive rainfall events that cause issues with flooding. Climate change is increasing the frequency of massive rainfall events but average rainfall is not predicted to increase greatly. Clearly, special measures are needed to mitigate the effects of these massive downpours, which have been sustained over long periods recently. (BTW, the annual rainfall was far higher than average on Isle of Wight last year.) In addition to the issues highlighted above, another problem is the amount of farmland left to pasture or just idle. Crops and trees can retain a lot of rain and buffer the effects of massive downpours. Get some trees planted.
“Methods include diverting water off the highway and onto nearby green space”
IR already do that ,.. off the highway and onto my, and my neighbours’ properties….
It’s all very well designing in mitigation into new developments,.. but the current system is already broken.
how about fixing that as well.
Clearing out the existing drainage system, and bigger pipes in some places, to take all the extra water from existing additional developments and increased rainfall, due to climate change, would be a start…
What the point nothing will happen..
Open up the sluice gates at Bembridge,always worked before.
Permeable paving. Rainwater Harvesting. Water Butts. Regular, and thorough clearing and cleaning of drainage channels, waterways and ditches. Investment in new and existing reservoirs. All common sense practices that for some reason seem beyond the relevant powers at the council?
Money needs to be spent on the infrastructure and/or at point of design and build.
Whilst it may be commended that we the general public are to be asked for ideas we all know that they wont be listened to or actioned upon.
IE; you need to forward some of your readers comments, on this and other issues, direct to the Council. Make them listen. Obviously omitting the usual diatribe and claptrap that is all too often present of course.
How about stop building houses on all the fields, maintain; street drainage and reservoirs.
Then replace the tree’s that have been cut down, and persuade whoever it is to stop messing with the weather via geoengineering.
Stop building more homes on an island that cannot cope.
Get the Fire service to help with floods.
Time they risk assess it summer will be here.
Considering how much rain we had at the turn of the year, a normal person would presume that gullies would be cleared and emptied between downfalls? Yet it was pretty obvious from the amounts of crap left covering the drains that precisely nothing was being done.
So when the council and The Toads get onto land owners about responsibilities, how about showing us how to do it by carrying out your responsibilities first?
What’s the point in giving our views? Nobody’s listening!
Simple keep the Eastern river Yar clear and open the Sluice Gates at Bembridge, this was always done when I was a boy in the fifties and sixties that will stop the flooding on fiftie percent of the Island.
Start by dredging the rivers ,I bet there are dozens of fridges,freezers,TV sets hidden below,and maybe half of the council leaders brains
Oo, ooo, I know *hand up waving frantically*…we’ll order more floating bridges!! One for Morton, one for Whitwell, one for Appleford, one for Godshill, one for Blackwater….please add to the list!
How about stop concreting every green space on the island, overbuilding is the major factor contributing to the present flooding.
Morton Common is a sick joke, just the simple act of opening the sluice gate into Bembridge harbour would remove the surface water on the road, it isn’t rocket science.