case study: caravan park, northumbria

As problem solvers, we’re often brought into projects to help solve consenting challenges on land.

One of our recent commercial projects has involved a project for 80 new lodges and caravans at a new holiday park in Northumbria.

Planning permission had been granted in 2017 which indicated a sewage treatment plant with discharge to watercourse.

Our client bought the site with planning permission and asked Land Studio to undertake detailed design of the foul drainage and gain a permit to discharge as indicated in the planning submission.

A bespoke application was submitted to the Environment Agency (EA) due to protected species in the downstream river which the EA confirmed during the pre-application stage.

Further investigation and redesign work was undertaken to provide evidence on why discharge to watercourse was the preferred solution as this wasn’t undertaken for the planning submission by the previous design team.

This, and a change in specification of the treatment plant from that submitted at planning, meant that finally a discharge permit could be provided and the planning condition be discharged.

Gaining discharge approval from the Environment Agency or Natural Resources Wales for treated foul discharge to ground or to watercourse is becoming harder and the permitting process is often overlooked until planning has been gained and after detailed design undertaken.

So undertaking up front ground investigations and spending a little bit more money at the due diligence phase on design is essential. It could prevent lengthy approval processes or costly rejections post planning.

Often this also has an impact on timescales which is critical if you need to open your new holiday park for the summer season.

• Do get in touch if you would like to discuss your project.