Haven Gateway Water Cycle Study

IMPORTANT GUIDANCE TO THE USE OF THIS WATER CYCLE STUDY
The Haven Gateway water Cycle Study was undertaken as a sub-regional study which covered a number of local authority areas. As such the level of detail entered in to for the study may be lower than a study carried out at a local planning authority or development area.
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The Stage 2 of the study was prepared over a period of 18 months from May 2008 to October 2009.
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In addition it has been commented that in some areas the Urban Waste Water Directive (UWWTD) sets limits on pollution discharge that may be lower than those set under the Water Resource Act and so may impact on the apparent pollution consent headroom discussed within the report. This will need further investigation, either in local studies or within the next update of the study.
Furthermore, solutions to both wastewater discharge and water supply issues have not been considered in detail and there may well be alternatives solutions to improve the use of water (such as effluent re-use) that have not been discussed in the current report.
The conclusions of the report have adopted a precautionary principle in that they have been based on no future action, and therefore highlight that action is needed, irrespective of whether this action is already planned, or needs to be planned before development takes place.
The intention of the report is to encourage and focus dialogue between the development partners to ensure that the various components of the water cycle are considered by all. It is expected that some local authorities or individual developers may need to take the water cycle studies into additional detail and develop strategies for implementing any actions required prior to, during and after development to ensure the longer term security of the water cycle.

The Water Cycle Study is a living document and it is intended that regular reviews and updates of the document will be undertaken and that comments received on this initial study will be incorporated into the first review.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Haven Gateway Partnership commissioned a Water Cycle Study to ensure that water supply, water quality, sewerage and flood risk management issues can be properly addressed and thus enabling the substantial growth proposed in the East of England Plan to 2021 to be accommodated in a sustainable way.
The study considered the Haven Gateway sub region which covers all of Colchester Borough, Ipswich Borough and Tendring District Council and parts of Babergh District, Mid Suffolk District and Suffolk Coastal District Councils.
Current and future development in the sub region is centred on the two large urban centres of Ipswich and Colchester together with a number of smaller market towns, whereas the focus of employment is on the two ports of Felixstowe and Harwich. In total the draft regional Spatial Strategy identified the need for around 51,000 new homes to be built across the region between 2001 and 2021.
The study commenced in 2007 and followed a staged approach to delivery. Stage 1 outlined the available data together with a broad assessment and was published in June 2008. The Stage 2 report looked in more detail at the water cycle and the impacts of development within specific areas on water supply, wastewater collection and disposal and flooding and was published in October 2009.

SUMARY OF FINDINGS
Water supply - all three of the water supply companies were confident that they had sufficient resources to supply the demands of the region over the forthcoming period and had plans in place to be able to realise these resources. There was a general assumption that the demand on water would reduce per capita due to metering, reduction in leakage and householder efficiencies and additional capacities would be addressed within their current improvement plans.
Wastewater - in general wastewater infrastructure and wastewater treatment and discharge are reasonable constrained within the sub-region. There are numerous areas where the existing infrastructure is currently at capacity with no room for growth. In addition a number of the treatment works are at, or will reach capacity with the projected growth, and therefore will require increases to their allowed discharge together with potential extensions to the works.
Water Quality - increases in discharge from sewage treatment works need to be accommodated within the receiving watercourses without adverse impacts. There are areas within the region where treatment improvements will be required to avoid any increase in pollution loads within the receiving water bodies.


FURTHER WORKThe Haven Gateway Water Cycle Study is a snapshot in time and will need to be updated and enhanced in the future as more data becomes available from the stakeholders, as development pressures change and evolve, and as the guidance and legislation supporting and driving the planning and water cycle evaluation processes evolves. In addition some of the issues identified within this report but not incorporated within the analyses due to the timing of the report should be considered and these may add additional detail to the results.

The above obviously is not my work. What I do is research stuff and winkle out the bits that are important and often missed entirely or suppressed.

I have been asked by a few mails why this is significant. The significance is the report appears to be the most recent and yet it is years old already. We need to be on the ball with such issues as this report could be used to justify something in 5 years time. It is out of date.