Consultation on the Adur and Ouse river basin catchment

We specifically asked about:

• Our Strategic Environmental Assessment Scoping Report
• Our selection of wastewater systems to take forward into the Options Development and Appraisal stage of the DWMP in the first cycle, and
• Our developing plans on each of the 11 river basin catchments.

Our report on the initial DWMP consultation is now available.

We didn’t receive any responses from the initial consultation relating specifically to the Adur and Ouse catchment. However, we know from the meetings held with the organisations that we have been working with that some key issues are:

• Bathing waters are a high priority for the local and visitor economy. Temporary and holiday accommodation such as seasonal caravan occupation increases the loads on the wastewater systems.
• A focus on reducing spills will reduce the risks.
• Pipe rehabilitation programmes are needed to prevent infiltration / exfiltration and protect groundwater.
• Surface water needs to be removed from the systems to mitigate against the impacts of climate change, overflows, flooding, growth and creep, and potentially provide wider multiple benefits.
• Partnerships are needed to identify suitable locations where SuDS (Sustainable Drainage Schemes) could be introduced to reduce flooding and slow the flow into the drainage systems.
• Blockages are the biggest cause of internal flooding so targeted customer education and sewer jetting is needed to reduce the risks.
• Upgrades are needed to outfalls and large storm water tunnels that discharge over sea walls / into tidal waters. These issues are critical and need to be taken into account in long term investment planning.

How we responded to the issues raised during the workshops and the preliminary public consultation is set out in our Register of Stakeholder Comments.

We held a full 12 week public consultation on the draft Regional (Level 1) DWMP between Monday 13 June and Monday 05 September 2022. Our Statement of Response to the issues raised is published on the home page of our website, and a report and analysis on the consultation is published on the Have your say page.