Codes for adoption

Ofwat has now approved the Sewerage Sector Guidance documentation that the sector had previously prepared to meet the requirements of Ofwat's Code for Adoption Agreements.

Sewerage Sector Guidance (SSG) was introduced on 1st April 2020, replacing 'Sewers For Adoption'.

The purpose of the codes for adoption is to drive efficiency and effectiveness of the processes, reducing the time and costs incurred by all parties entering into adoption agreements. A new system of redress and model adoption agreement has also been published.

The approved documents can be found on Water UK’s website.

The sector realises that immediate implementation on or after the 1st April does present an issue to commonly – encountered situations. Transition arrangements have therefore been prepared to accommodate such scenarios. Water UK has now published final SSG transition principles, which can be found here.

In general, applications using current standards will continue to be accepted for six months from the implementation of the SSG on 1st April 2020. As far as possible, Anglian Water would prefer to agree with developers that schemes submitted after 1st April should be handled using the new service standards.

So what's changed?

A number of important changes have been introduced within the SSG. These have been established as improvements to the current process and procedures for Adoption Agreements.

Key highlights include:

Pre-design strategic discussion/assessment

In addition to a standard pre-planning enquiry, this stage is designed to capture the early engagement for the design of a site to enable the proposals for maintaining a sewerage system for its lifetime to be considered and discussed. The earlier these discussions the better, and an assessment can be requested at any point before the S104 application is submitted. It also allows the developer to confirm the future owner and maintainer of the sewerage system “at the outset” to use as part of their planning application.

Design Construction Guidance (DCG)

DCG has become the guidance document for designing and constructing adoptable foul and surface water drainage systems (including pumping stations and rising mains).

Please see SSG Appendix C

SuDS adoption

Guidance has been provided for the adoption of certain types of SuDS components now recognised as sewers. These components can be included within your Section 104 application as part of the adoptable design.

DCG covers the principles of SuDS adoption in more detail.

Levels of service

Defined levels of service have been outlined for each process in the Sector Guidance.

Full details can be found in SSG Appendix B and include:

Anglian Water has up to 7 calendar days to acknowledge a Section 104 application.
Following the first technical vetting of up to 28 calendar days, each subsequent vetting is limited to 14 calendar days.
Levels of service are specified for Anglian Water to arrange an inspection and to issue an appropriate certificate.

Diverted sewers

If your site includes a requirement to divert existing public sewers to enable the development, you can include these proposals within your Section 104 adoption application.

The Section 104 agreement that’s signed will refer to the diverted sewers as "The Second Schedule", removing the need for a separate Section 185 diversion application.

It should be noted that all affected landowners would have to enter into the Section 104 agreement for this to be possible. Early discussions with the landowners is therefore highly recommended before making your application.

Conditional acceptance

A Conditional Acceptance can be provided, at your request, where certain elements of the site have met the DCG and where you wish to progress constructing the system before full Technical Acceptance has been granted.

This will enable the contractor to commence work and request an early start inspection on those parts of the scheme which have received Conditional Acceptance.

Some elements of a system may not be able to receive a Conditional Acceptance and advice should be sought from Anglian Water beforehand.

Early start inspections

Anglian Water is able to offer early start inspections on site once Conditional Acceptance and/or full Technical Acceptance has been provided.

This early engagement on site should ensure that what goes in the ground meets the required standards, which will be beneficial for all parties.

It should be noted that any proposed diversion works must have an agreement in place before any work on the existing system can be carried out.

Variations

This stage is designed to confirm any variations requested to the design of a system once Technical Acceptance or Conditional Acceptance has been granted. Any variations which do not impact on the network hydraulics can be agreed on site and recorded on the ‘As Constructed’ plans. All other variations will be dealt with by a formal re-submission.

Provisional certificates

Anglian Water will now issue a ‘Provisional Certificate - Full’ where no defects have been identified during the inspection. If remedial works have been identified, Anglian Water will issue a ‘Provisional Certificate - Defects’ outlining any remedial works or defects that need to be remedied.

SSG procedures expects all defects to be completed by the Developer within six months.

Local practices

SSG allows Anglian Water to introduce a local practice in certain permitted areas where our operational requirements are not adequately covered in the DCG.

Anglian Water has now implemented a local practice for pumping stations, effective as of 22nd June 2020. Our published document can be found here. If you have any questions relating to the content, please contact us on 0345 60 66 087 (option 2) or by email to drainage@anglianwater.co.uk.

Where a pumping station forms part of the design, there will be a requirement for telemetry equipment to be installed and commissioned. This will incur additional costs to the 2.5% supervision fee. Please see our telemetry page for further information

Construction details

Anglian Water has removed its standard construction details following the introduction of the DCG. We would request that your design ensures compliance with the details provided in the DCG and reference to these is made in your application drawings.

Where construction details for some drainage assets have not been provided in the DCG (such as flow control chambers), we have provided a preferred arrangement drawing. Please refer to our Designing a public sewer webpage for further information.

Inspections

Our helpful team of dedicated Development Services Representatives are on hand to provide all levels of support throughout the adoption process. Each representative covers a specific geographical area – please give us a call on 0345 60 66 087 (option 2) to confirm which representative you will need to contact.

Privately owned sewer

Do you live in a residential area where the sewers are privately owned?

If you and your neighbours would like us to adopt an existing sewer, you are able to submit an application to us using our online portal InFlow. Please register for an account and click on Drainage to apply for “Adoption of existing sewer”. You will be asked to upload plans and details of the sewers for initial consideration. We will review these details and respond to you confirming which sewers can be progressed further through the adoption process. There are charges associated to this process if adoption of the sewers is possible, please see our charges page for further information.

This service is available to the owner of any private sewer or pumping station who would like to put these forwards for adoption by the water company.

We are making modifications to our InFlow portal where necessary to respond to the process changes identified in the SSG. We are confident that these modifications will help support our customers during the application and agreement process.

Local practices

SSG allows Anglian Water to introduce a local practice in certain permitted areas where our operational requirements are not adequately covered in the DCG.

Anglian Water has now implemented a local practice for pumping stations, effective as of 22nd June 2020. Our published document can be found here. If you have any questions relating to the content, please contact us on 0345 60 66 087 or by email to developmentservices@anglianwater.co.uk

You asked, what we heard

We understand that the SSG may pose unanswered questions for you. We are happy to respond to all questions individually and also share our responses with all customers on our website.

Please send any questions to developmentservices@anglianwater.co.uk with 'SSG Question' in the subject line.

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Codes for Adoption