Defra has announced that its new legislation for the mandatory adoption of sewers and lateral drainage which should have been implemented on the 1st April is postponed.
Sewers are the pipes that take foul sewage and surface water away from more than one property. Lateral drains take foul sewage (waste from toilets, bathrooms and kitchens) and surface water (rain water) away from individual property’s and lie outside of the property’s boundary.
Sewers and lateral drains are either publicly or privately maintained. If they are publicly maintained, the local water and sewerage company is responsible for repairs and maintenance.
On 20 December 2011 the Government launched a public consultation on draft proposals to ensure that all new foul sewers connecting to the public sewerage network are built to a specified standard and automatically adopted by the local water and sewerage company as part of the public network. These proposals would implement Section 42 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. However, this process has found that many respondents do not feel that the implementation date in the consultation of 1 April 2012 is achievable. There have also been calls for the implementation date to be aligned with the implementation date for SuDS. This is an understandable approach and Defra will continue to look at alongside the responses to the SuDS consultation which closed on 13 March 2012.
Approved Design will continue to work with you to ensure that compliant cost effective drainage solutions are delivered on all schemes currently in design development.
To explore if your scheme is affected please contact Approved Design Consultancy who we will be pleased to assist.