Flood Prevention with Permeable Paving

Record levels of rainfall hit the UK this year with a number of different towns and communities affected by devastating floods.

Many climate experts believe that these extreme weather conditions will become more commonplace meaning flood prevention solutions will become more sought after and implemented.

Permeable paving is one such solution and is designed to limit surface runoff by allowing rainfall to filtrate into the ground naturally. This will decrease volumes of water being directed into already overused sewers.

Marshalls (UK) has been supplying their Priora Permeable Paving system for over a decade. Marshall Water Management expert, Chris Griffiths, said: “Climate change means that extreme weather conditions are happening more often, unfortunately there’s nothing we can do to stop it from raining, but we can control the surfaces that it lands on.

“This summer the people of Hebden Bridge and Croscombe experienced firsthand the devastating effects of heavy rainfall entering overburdened and antiquated drainage systems. The use of Priora Permeable Paving is a key strategy in minimising the effects of increasingly heavy rainfall and flash flooding.”

Chris concludes: “Many people wrongly believe that permeable paving is too expensive or difficult to install, this simply isn’t the case. The fully installed cost of a Marshalls Priora pavement is equal to, or even less than the cost of an equivalent Tarmac surface with sufficient channel drainage, and our Priora block is engineered to make installation simple.”
 
Mary Dhonau (OBE), Chair of the Flood Protection Association, said: “Extreme weather incidents are becoming the norm rather than the exception.

“We can’t stop it from raining, but we can plan for these events. Making permeable paving the first choice for any hard standing requirement is the very least local authorities, planners, architects and homeowners can do to help to alleviate this growing problem.”

Last month Mary Dhonau visited Hebden Bridge to see the aftermath of the floods for herself. To see the video about Mary’s visit, and to hear advice on how to minimise the risk of flooding, and also how to cope with the effects, please visit www.youtube.com/MarshallsGroup.