Housing Development for Barratt at Former Lower School

Type: Commercial Development – Housing Estate Location: Kingsbridge, South Devon

This was a challenging and complex scheme for Barratt Homes, comprising the redevelopment of the former Lower School, Kingsbridge for 64 houses. This is a steeply sloping site where it was very difficult to achieve the design of the road to adoptable standards due to steep gradients. The project was successfully completed and adopted by the Local Authority.

Prior to our appointment it had become apparent that the site may not be possible to develop due to the lack of available storm water drainage and the inability of the subsoil to drain surface water, rendering the use of normal soakaways impossible. It appeared that the only option left to the developer was to construct a new storm drain all the way to the river estuary, which would have been cost prohibitive, rendering the scheme unviable. We designed a solution utilising holding tanks to the rear of the properties which overflowed and drained down to larger holding tanks beneath car parking areas. Some percolation into the subsoils was taken into account with combined soakaways and the remaining water overflowed into an existing storm drain in the Highway, at a controlled rate.