Alex Stephenson Market Development Director, Hydro International (12 Jul 2016)  

‘If you asked a developer, a planning officer and a consulting engineer for a definition of SuDS, do you think you would get the same answer? I have a suspicion that their answers might well be significantly different.  In a recent parliamentary inquiry into future flood resilience, it was suggested that we have a problem with the definition of SuDS.If this is true, then how can we hope to use SuDS effectively to protect our infrastructure, property and our environment from flood risk and water pollution, when those who regulate, design and deliver SuDS have different impressions of what they are?  Not to mention environmentalists, politicians, academics, proprietary equipment manufacturers like ourselves, landscape architects and so on. The point was made during an oral evidence session on 25 May  to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) select committee’s inquiry into Future Flood Prevention by Steve Wielebski, speaking on behalf of the Home Builders Federation.  He said: “SuDS is 4,000 years old.  There is nothing new about it.”  He continued: “The view that we have always taken as engineers – others might disagree – is that SuDS just about embraces everything.  It can be above ground.  It can be below ground.” Click here to read more.