Mountfield Park
Water Environment Ltd was commissioned in 2012 to advise the client, Corinthian Land, and assist the masterplanners with the proposed urban expansion of Canterbury City, involving the development of 4,000 new homes, schools and associated infrastructure on a 232 ha site. Water Environment Ltd prepared a Flood Risk Assessment, Sustainable Drainage Systems and foul drainage strategy, Air Quality Assessment, Nutrient Neutrality Assessment and Mitigation Strategy and Environmental Impact Assessments to support a hybrid planning application.
Client: Corinthian Land
Status: Planning Permission granted
Services
Flood Risk Services
- Flood Risk Assessment (FRA)
- Sustainable Drainage Strategy
- Flood Defence (Mitigation) Strategy
- Flood Investigation
- Hydrology & Hydraulic Modelling
- Flood Emergency Plan
- Basement Impact Assessment (BIA)
- Groundwater Flooding
- Expert Witness
Environmental Services
- Nutrient Neutrality
- Flow & Water Quality Monitoring & Sampling
- River Geomorphological Survey & Assessment
- Water Framework Directive (WFD) Assessment
- Water Resources Assessment
- Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
- Air Quality Assessment (AQA)
- Catchment Management Plans
- Environmental Permits, Licences & Consents
- Expert Witness
Engineering Services
- Sewerage Design
- Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) Design
- Landscape Amenity & Sport Facility Drainage
- Earthworks Design
- River Design
- Roads & Driveways
- Expert Witness
Project details
The surface water drainage strategy was developed by applying the SuDS hierarchy and leveraging extensive knowledge of the preferred solutions of Kent County Council (KCC) and Canterbury City Council (CCC). The masterplan includes provisions for sustainable drainage throughout, featuring a ‘SuDS corridor’ to be constructed in the primary valley as part of the public woodland open space. Additionally, new swales and watercourses will convey surface water from the new development.
Southern Water advised that the public foul sewer system lacks sufficient capacity to accommodate the development. Consequently, an exhaustive list of solutions was proposed, leading to the negotiation of a Section 98 requisition with Southern Water to provide a new sewer directly to Sturry Road Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW).
All environmental assessments were negotiated and agreed upon with KCC (the Lead Local Flood Authority), the Environment Agency (EA), Natural England (NE) and CCC (Air Quality and drainage), ensuring no objections to the development. The planning committee resolved to grant planning permission in December 2016.
A Judicial Review was submitted to the High Court on the grounds of air quality, claiming that the application should have been called in by the Secretary of State. Water Environment supported the defence by providing detailed air quality assessments, including atmospheric dispersion modelling helping to dismiss the appeals in the High Court and Supreme Court in 2019.