Drainage

Highway and land drainage is managed by the council's Highway Asset Management team who work closely with the Area highway engineers to ensure that the highway and land drainage operates effectively.

The drainage team also work closely with:

• Planning*
• Emergency Planning
• Environment Agency
• Wessex and Thames Water
• Other stakeholders who have an interest in drainage and flooding

* You can find the forms in the download section for developers

• Flood risk management
• Local flood risk assessment, mapping and planning (ordinary watercourses, surface run-off and groundwater)
• The production of local surface water management plans and agreed programmes of work
• Obtaining information from other bodies to inform the above work
• Mapping local flood risk assets and associated ownership
• Powers to designate features (natural or man made) to help manage flood risk
• Consenting and managing of ordinary watercourses
• Wiltshire local flood risk management strategy*
• Wiltshire groundwater management strategy*
• Wiltshire preliminary flood risk assessment**
• Wiltshire strategic flood risk assessment**
• Wiltshire surface water management plan**

* These can be found in the download section.

** These can be found in the download section as a link to our planning pages

It was originally envisaged that under Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFA), such as Wiltshire Council, would be required to establish SuDS Approval Bodies. This would have required us to approve, adopt and maintain SuDS features in new developments. However, in December 2014, the Government issued a ministerial statement on SuDS announcing that Schedule 3 would not be enacted, and instead SuDS would be dealt with by strengthening existing planning policy. Therefore, as LLFA, we have no obligation to adopt SuDS.

Currently, we may adopt SuDS for road drainage as part of road adoptions under Section 38 of the Highways Act 1980. We do this in our capacity as Highway Authority. However at this stage, we do not adopt SuDS for property drainage as an LLFA.

To find out more about the processes required to secure road adoption, contact us at HighwaysDevelopment@wiltshire.gov.uk (opens new window).

Besides the Land Drainage Act requirement we have its own byelaws which mirror those used by the Environment Agency.

You can find copy of the land drainage byelaws in the download section.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding works adjacent or within a watercourse, contact drainage@wiltshire.gov.uk (opens new window).

You can find the forms in the download section for developers.