North West England SuDS Pro-forma released

New SuDS Pro-forma for use by Local Planning Authorities

A new sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) pro-forma and accompanying guidance have been created for use by Local Planning Authorities as part of their planning documentation.

This has been created for the North West, sponsored and endorsed by the North West Regional Flood and Coastal Committee, and has been developed by a task group of representatives from United Utilities, North West Local Authorities and the Environment Agency, all of whom Planning Authorities may need to consult on surface water drainage matters. The pro-forma has then been widely consulted on and developed further based on the feedback received.

The guidance and the pro-forma encourage the creation of high quality SuDS by allowing water quality, amenity and biodiversity as well as water quantity to be properly considered during the design stage and allowing it to be fully integrated into the surface water management and development design process.

The new pro-forma supports and encourages SuDS design in line with The SuDS Manual C753 and the Design and Construction Guidance (DCG) for sewers which became the new regulated sewerage sector guidance on 1 April 2020.

Implementation

The pro-forma and supporting guidance act as templates for Local Planning Authorities to adopt and make their own. The pro-forma is designed to be a consistent standard product and LPAs are being encouraged to retain this consistency and to clearly identify any local requirements within each section.

The pro-forma and supporting guidance are available on the North West’s Flood Hub website.