The site. Land at The Elm Tree Inn in Staveley, near Chesterfield, where a planning application needed soakaway testing before the surface water drainage could be designed.
What we did. Trial pits were excavated and tested to BRE 365, with three timed fills in each pit.
What we found. The ground was suitable for soakaways.
What it meant. The engineer could design soakaways. Our report set the key positioning rules the design had to meet:
- at least 5 m from any building
- at least 2.5 m from the site boundary
- at least 1 m above the groundwater table
The lesson. A pass isn’t the end of it. Where the soakaway goes matters as much as the infiltration rate, and the report should say so.