South and West Wales Forum

A sub group has been established to cover the South and West Wales region. The Group is chaired by Chris Vinestock (City and County of Swansea) with secretariat support provided by Huw Jones (MWH). The Group comprises of representatives from 15 local authorities in the region which ranging from Monmouthshire to Pembrokeshire and extendingup to Powys . The Group also includes representatives from DCWW and the WLGA.

The remit of this regional group is to promote sustainable drainage systems (SUDS) within the area and to share best practice experience.

This year we have held three separate meetings.

The inaugural meeting was held in March with further meetings held in June and November.

The Group have invited and received several presentations covering:
1. Outline of the SUDS Working Party for Wales – Bob Vaughan and Jeremy Jones

2. North Wales Forum – Zorica Todorovic

3.  DCWW’s  Position on Surface Water Management – Dominic Scott

4.  WG – Sustainable Drainage Systems – Changes to Current Practice – Phil; Chatfield

5.  SUDS  features in Oxfordshire and how they are maintained – Gordon Hunt

6.  DCWW – Examples of SUDS Systems and their adoptability by DCWW – Dominic Scott

The group has also begun to discuss how each organisations is dealing with SUDs within their authorities, covering good and bad practices.

The Group is also being used as a vehicle to assist a request from WG. The object is to help improve the assumptions Welsh Government will make in the Impact Assessment they intend to issue with the Consultation on National Standards. Members have been asked to assess the current proportion of planning applications which currently result in schemes with SuDS