The development will be the largest new residential development in Oxford and the aim for Barton Park was to build an exemplary development that provides a benchmark for future large developments in the area.
Recent changes to legislation driven by an increase in flood events have forced developers to reconsider how water is managed within their developments. The days of simply collecting water and directing it into pipe systems and then off-site via a stormwater sewer or into the local watercourse are behind us and instead, designers are rethinking the way they manage water by the application of increasingly smart integrated Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) design.
From the very early days of planning the development at Barton Park, Oxford City council recognised the impact of the development on the hydrology of the area. In order to manage the impact, they were determined to incorporate water management through appropriate flood protection measures and the implementation of best SuDS practices as a core objective.
The Barton Area Action Plan includes separate chapters on both flood protection and SuDS and a clearly defined Policy BA16: Surface water drainage, which states: “Surface water drainage for the strategic development site should be designed as a Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SuDS) to reduce overall run-off volumes leaving the site; control the rate of flow, and improve the quality of the water before it joins any watercourse or other body of water.” The key to this is that SuDS should form the cornerstone for the water management practices employed across the site. The Action Plan prescribed that the SuDS (and the appropriate components) should be specified according to the site layout and the type of development in that particular development area. It also recognised the role that well-designed SuDS can play in not just managing water quantities but also in improving water quality and creating biodiversity and amenity assets within the development, all of which are key factors in improving the environment of the development. As is best practice, a significant number of landscaped SuDS components have been integrated within the design; these are designed to manage rainfall as close to the source as possible.