A crucial first step for new developments to ensure they can manage water runoff sustainably and mitigate flood risk, aligning with national and local planning requirements. WCI can oversee the initial assessment or Feasibility Study to determine if a site’s drainage plan is practical, cost-effective and compliant with regulations before a full planning application is submitted.

WCI will evaluate a site’s drainage capacity, soil, topography, and groundwater conditions to identify potential limitations and flag feasibility issues for our clients early on. The key components to a WCI Feasibility Study are:

• Site assessment, evaluating the site’s physical characteristics, including topography, soil geology, and existing drainage points.
• Risk assessment to identify and assesses potential flood risks and how the proposed development might affect them.
• Feasibility and viability to determine the practicality of implementing a sustainable drainage system (SuDS) flagging any early limitations that might affect the development’s layout or overall viability.
• Ensure the proposed drainage strategy will align with national and local planning policies and regulations.
• Help estimate the costs associated with the necessary drainage infrastructure, allowing developers to budget accordingly.
• Stakeholder consultation, providing a basis for discussions with relevant authorities like the Environment Agency, local councils, and water and sewerage companies.

Flood Risk Assessments are a key requirement for planning approval for a wide range of developments, often forming a key part of drainage strategies. As an integral part of our early stage drainage design process, a Flood Risk Assessment (FRA) aims to identify the risk of flooding to a proposed development and its surroundings, from all sources of flooding while working with all stakeholders to identify options for amending the design or mitigating the flood risk.

WCI provides detailed strategic and site-specific Flood Risk Assessments for all sizes of development with years of experience working closely with the Environment Agency, Local Planning Authorities, Water Authorities and insurance providers.

Depending on the flood risk, assessments can be as simple as a short written statement or may need complex modelling. A WCI FRA will include:

• Assess the suitability of the proposed development in relation to all sources of flooding;
• Assess the flood risk posed by the scheme once it is complete and operational;
• Suggest mitigation measures in order to reduce any residual risks to acceptable levels;
• Recommend preferred surface water drainage strategies for the development.

In England, the National Planning Policy Framework requires you to complete a Flood Risk Assessment if:

The site lies within Flood Zone 2 or Flood Zone 3
The size area is over 1ha
The site lies within an area that has been classified by the Local Planning Authority or the Environment Agency as having critical drainage problems (ie lies within a Critical Drainage Area).
In Wales, under TAN15 (Technical Advice Note 15) a FCA (Flood Consequence Assessment) is required if you are within Zone C1 or C2 or Zone B if flooding has been identified as a material consideration.

WCI provide assessments to help you understand the risk of flooding of your project site, property or premises.

WCI are well experienced in working with landscape architects, architects and master planners, and we advocate being involved from the concept stage to ensure the best value and outcome for your project.

Detailed drainage proposals may be submitted with a planning application but may also be subject to planning conditions for approval later in the development process. Used to inform the Local Authority’s drainage officer and/or Site of the requirements for surface water drainage system onsite, it enhances the conceptual SuDS strategy proposed as part of the drainage strategy. Detailed drainage design is often thought of as the engineering drawings for a proposed SuDS scheme.

Once a SuDS assessment has been planned and approved by the Local Planning Authority (LPA) and/or Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA), WCI can oversee the need for infiltration testing and/or discussions with the utility company over discharge rates if required.

Detailed drainage design can also include foul (waste) water drainage layout. Before detailed drainage design is started, WCI will determine the foul and storm water flows generated by the proposed development and calculate the optimum points of outfall, so the capacity and suitability of existing drainage systems to accommodate additional flows can be assessed.

WCI have provided detail drainage design for a vast range of projects including:

• Drainage Networks for construction and adoption
• Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS)
• Retrofit SuDS to solve drainage problems and alleviate pressure on sewers
• Integration of SuDS and water features for landscape architects
• Rainwater Harvesting
• Wastewater Treatment and re-use
• Pumping stations

Extending your home offers a way to grow your living space and potentially increase your property’s value. But an extension, like any other build, should start with drainage design to ensure your new extension does not overload your existing drainage system and prove costly further down the line.

A well-designed drainage strategy should be the basis of any building project. WCI has a wealth of experience working with self-builders to ensure projects not only comply with local regulations and but are designed for long-term sustainability.

When working with Self Build Design, WCI will consider:

• Your existing drainage / septic tank / sewage treatment plant
• Topography & Permeability
• Space Constraints
• Environmental Permitting

WCI provide honest advice and support with preparing environmental permit applications as well as undertaking a comprehensive design and permitting service.

With permit applications typically taking six to twelve months for the Environment Agency to process, it is tempting to defer application until after planning for new developments is awarded. However, permitting is a key factor in establishing the feasibility for new developments and we recommend early advice to avoid costly redesigns.

Even if you already have planning approval, the specification of a treatment solution must take account of the anticipated treatment standard that an Environmental Permit will specify so it is equally important to seek advice on Environmental Permitting for your existing discharge.

WCI have experience of literally thousands of water discharges across the country. Our experience allows us to provide practical and accurate guidance on how to ensure ongoing compliance for your private drainage system.

WCI regularly receives questions about the Environment Agency’s General Binding Rules, the so called “2020 rule” and the legality of septic tanks, the difference between existing and new discharges and many other aspects of the General Binding Rules which are difficult to interpret. If in doubt, don’t leave your compliance to chance.

WCI establishes efficient and functional teams to deliver projects to expected timeframes, budget requirements and quality and functionality objectives. Our project management encompasses all aspects of a project’s lifecycle, including scoping, procurement, financial management, programme, contracts, risk management and monitoring of works.
Our project management strength lies in a deep understanding of the technical designs, construction methods and the system lifecycles of the developments we deliver.

We don’t rely on bureaucratic methods or jargon to justify our privileged position and instead let cost savings, engineering innovations and meeting programme milestones demonstrate our project management credentials.

With over 40 years working with Water & Wastewater, WCI’s expertise and comprehensive understanding of this sector uniquely qualifies us to provide expert opinions for cases that may require legal intervention. Having experience in both domestic and commercial environments, WCI has been engaged by leading law firms, legal practices and insurance companies to give evidence and opinion on cases involving the design and efficiency of drainage systems.

Whether you’re facing a complex legal situation or seeking an expert opinion, you can trust our team to deliver accurate and insightful reports that stand up to scrutiny.

Contact WCI today to learn more about our expert witness report writing services and how we can assist you.

WCI’s highways and infrastructure design encompasses all aspects of adoptable and private residential and industrial highway design including S38 and S278 highway design, stormwater drainage, paving design and specification, traffic and junction design, car parking layouts and earthwork mass and cut & fill assessments.

Highways drainage isn’t just about getting the water off the carriageway as quickly as possible, it is all very well getting it off the surface but if there isn’t enough capacity downstream in the sewer – or river – it will either come back up or cause a problem somewhere else downstream.

Our designs are supported by the application for, and coordination of, regulatory consents and permits including S102 and S104 adoptions and requisitions. Our engineers have an extension knowledge of national and local policy and technical standards and our designs do not annotate for exclusions of critical dependencies.

Contractors engage WCI to carry out independent technical design reviews of other civil engineer’s design work to ensure consistency with applicable design standards and to understand whether any areas of the design can be value engineered to bring about cost or time improvement.

WCI are able to inform tender submissions when bidding for design and build contracts and often identify amendments in design strategy which can be adopted leading to large savings. This allows clients to submit bids with a cost saving edge compared to their competitors, many of which do not sufficiently interrogate tender package / planning strategy information due to a lack of knowledge in this area.

Items we typically address when carrying out our value engineering critical reviews are:

• Adopting inspection chambers or rodding access points opposed to full-sized manholes leading to cost savings
• Improving the efficiency of vertical alignments of roads leading to reduced earthworks and cost savings
• Improving the use of SuDS features leading to reduced development land take and reduced costs to construct
• Optimising pipe networks and bedding leading to shallower and shorter pipe runs and with more optimised bedding construction

Clients sometimes need a second opinion; a design may seem wrong, too intrusive, or too heavy. Have concerns? Speak to WCI today about your project.

WCI is employed by architects, project managers and clients as a Clerk of Works or CoW on construction projects to check that the quality of both materials and workmanship are in accordance with the design information and recognised quality standards.

If you expect the highest standard of quality on your construction project, and want to know that works have been carried out to the contract specification, a Clerk of Works is an essential part of your team.

A WCI Clerk of Works is your “eyes and ears on site” and will work diligently with the contractor’s team to help them “get it right first time” and aid them in handing over a snag free project. WCI focus on quality assurance and site-specific compliance during construction, ensuring the work meets design specifications and quality standards.