As part of a development process when looking to add any additional occupancy elements to a site the corresponding waste management needs to be considered, a large part of this is dealing with any wastewater on site. This is most commonly a concern for sites who are adding additional camping pods/ lodges/ pitches.

As part of a standard planning procedure, you will be asked to identify how you will deal with this aspect of the works. Stipulations may also be put in place dependant on the site as to where and what you need to install.

Following our attendance on a site in Northumberland we were looking to identify a working proposal, therefore, to cover every eventuality we provided multiple options:

A new 2,800 litre septic tank to serve the property alone.

A new 3,800 litre septic tank to serve the property and the proposed camping pods.

A new 5.700 litre septic tank to serve the property, camping pods and toilet facilities.

Each of the septic tank proposals required a corresponding method for discharge, in order to comply with the 2020 General Binding Rules this unit needed to discharge to a drainage field. For this to achieve compliance percolation tests needed to be undertaken and the size and length of the drainage field would be calculated based on the ground porosity and size of system installed.

The shallow dig septic tank was the preferred choice for the application is due to the location/ type of proposed application, this will be installed to achieve a gravity outfall from the existing pipework to a new suitable location.

All of our installations are installed as per the manufacturer’s guidelines in a full concrete surround, this is vital to ensure the sustainability and strength of the installation. As part of the installation process and to hopefully reduce unnecessary replacement costs to the customer we carried out a full CCTV survey of the existing drainage on site, this allowed us to focus on replacing any pipework that was damaged.

Once the percolation tests had been undertaken and all the information relayed to the customer, they were able to select which route they were planning on taking. The option they selected to pursue was the 3,800-litre septic tank to serve the property and the camping pods.

There was a considerable amount of drainage required for this project with 57 metres of inlet pipework being required to bring the waste to the new installation location, a subtotal of 30 metres of new drainage field was also installed following the percolation test.