Sewage capacity
Case reference EIR2024/00624
Published 29 April 2024
Request
I wish to make a request under the EIR for the following information:
1. During the production of the draft Local Plan what information was requested from Sewage Companies with regard to capacity of their network in each of the settlements identified for housing under the settlement hierarchy?
2. Why do the environmental restrictions included in the settlement hierarchy not reference the capacity of the sewage network in these areas?
3. What legal advice has the Council received in relation to considering sewage infrastructure and its suitability / capacity as part of the settlement hierarchy and copies of that advice where the EIR allows.
4. Any information, communication, legal advice or similar received by or sent by the Council from or to Welsh Water or Severn Trent in relation to the sewage systems in the villages of Luston, Yarpole, Kingsland or Orleton.
Response
During the production of the draft Local Plan what information was requested from Sewage Companies with regard to capacity of their network in each of the settlements identified for housing under the settlement hierarchy?
A: The Water Companies (Welsh Water and Severn Trent) made available to us their summary of capacity in their areas. This information included whether there was mains drainage, whether any upgrades were planned. There was slightly more information in addition to this from Severn Trent which referred to hydraulic capacity but this was not used to form a view as part of the Rural Settlement Hierarchy. The 2022 Rural Settlement Hierarchy was only seeking to establish the presence of mains drainage to be used as part of a strategic assessment.
2. Why do the environmental restrictions included in the settlement hierarchy not reference the capacity of the sewage network in these areas?
A: The 2022 Rural Settlement Hierarchy was only seeking to establish the presence of mains drainage. This information would have added to the additional facilities and capacity of services in a settlement. It has since been established that a strategic approach on drainage capacity is not a suitable way forward and a case by case basis is the preferred way (see introductory paragraph above for the approach to the 2024 Settlement hierarchy. The information sent to the Council by Welsh Water and Severn Trent is normally included in the Housing Employment Land Availability Assessment and has been included in past publications. Each parish status is set out for each site in the HELAA. There will be a further HELAA later this year once all technical assessments have been completed.
3. What legal advice has the Council received in relation to considering sewage infrastructure and its suitability / capacity as part of the settlement hierarchy and copies of that advice where the EIR allows.
A: No specific legal advice has been sought with regard to the settlement hierarchy
4. Any information, communication, legal advice or similar received by or sent by the Council from or to Welsh Water or Severn Trent in relation to the sewage systems in the villages of Luston, Yarpole, Kingsland or Orleton.
A: See attached summary information on the 4 named settlements. There was a meeting with Welsh Water and another with Severn Trent to understand their approach to assessing areas and the value of approaching this strategically. This was a fact-finding meeting rather than a minuted meeting. The Rural Areas Background Paper March 2024 . Page 8 of Appendix 1 of this 2024 Paper includes the conclusions from those two meetings.
Further information from the Service Area:
In the Rural Areas Settlement Hierarchy Background Paper June 2022 information about access to mains drainage was included in the scoring methodology for the assessment of each settlement. See Page 16 of this paper to see the approach to the inclusion of mains drainage. A combination of information was used to identify if mains drainage was present. This included information from Welsh Water and Severn Trent for the larger settlements. The smaller settlements and hamlets required a manual check on our Exponare Mapping System for signs of drainage where information was not available by the water companies. All of this was combined into a table in Appendix 5 (pg.58 ) of the Rural Areas Settlement Hierarchy Background Paper June 2022. Where it was known if mains drainage existed then a score of 15 was included for each location. Where no information was known about mains drainage then the settlement scored 0.
This approach to not include drainage in future Rural Settlement Hierarchy assessments was set out in the March 2024 Draft Local Plan Rural Areas Background Paper. Reasons for this are set out on pg. 8 of Rural Areas Background Paper March 2024 . Appendix 1 of this 2024 Paper includes the information sent to parishes for checking with further information explaining the reasons for not using drainage as part of the assessment.
Documents
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