Longhurst Park
- Location: Horsham Road, Cranleigh
- Client: Crest Nicholson
About This Development
A development of 120 dwellings set within mature landscape on the edges of Cranleigh.
Areas of open green space have been retained to complement is setting of surrounding countryside.
Challenges
The local area had suffered recent flooding, making residents understandably nervous about development. As the Site was underlain by clay, it meant that surface water could not easily soak away or infiltrate into the ground, and wet conditions were evident in winter site visits.
Existing capacity & levels issues in the local foul sewer network meant that on-site adoptable foul water pumping had to be managed and partly stored on site at times of peak flow.
Solutions
In collaboration with other disciplines, we gathered evidence and calculations to assure local Residents and Planning Officers that development would actually benefit the site and reduce flood risk. As is often the case, the development of a site to modern day storm and flood prevention criteria means that even greenfield land can be made less liable to flood once developed.
In association with a trusted Pump Specialist, an adoption compliant pumped foul water solution was developed and subsequently approved by Thames Water.
Existing land drainage ditches and the receiving watercourse were accounted for in the detailed design and enhanced to further reduce flood risk to the area. The use of open swales and attenuation basins also offer biodiversity enhancement to the scheme.
