Polypipe Civils & Green Urbanisation’s inaugural Realising Resilience e-Roadshow event on Wednesday 17th June, which attracted over 80 delegates, shone a light on Greater Manchester and the great strides it is taking towards embedding green infrastructure throughout the region. “One of the strong messages to emerge from the diverse line-up
United Utilities (UU) has announced in its latest trading statement that it is continuing to accelerate its AMP6 capital investment programme this year. The accelerated programme will allow the firm to deliver operational benefits early customer service, enhancing asset resilience and optimising performance under its outcome delivery incentives (ODIs). Total
BDC 319 : Aug 2024
Polypipe Civils & Green Urbanisation’s inaugural Realising Resilience e-Roadshow event on Wednesday 17th June, which attracted over 80 delegates, shone a light on Greater Manchester and the great strides it is taking towards embedding green infrastructure throughout the region. “One of the strong messages to emerge from the diverse line-up of speakers was the importance of collaboration between a wide range of stakeholders in delivering green urbanisation. One simply can’t just look to ecologists, landscape architects and designers; utility companies, private investors and data analysts are all part of a successful mix,” explained Sean Robinson, Specification Director, who hosted the event. Nicholas Wright, Specification Manager, City & Landscape Polypipe Civils & Green Urbanisation, opened the event with a look back at Manchester’s Angel Gardens. Completed in 2019, this project boasts a large Permavoid, shallow invert attenuation tank situated on the podium which limited the impact to the surrounding drainage infrastructure. He also explained how if this project was designed today the addition of more green assets and smart systems – like the ones installed on Polypipe’s own award-winning, blue/green roof in Aylesford – could have boosted this development’s resilience further. Sophie Tucker, United Utilities’ Sustainable Drainage System Manager, spoke of her organisation’s role in encouraging the installation of blue/green roofs in the North West, with retrofit a particular focus. United Utilities is incentivising this with significant reductions in sewage charges to non-household customers who deploy SuDS such as blue/green roofs. John Roberts, Principal Civil Engineer at specialist consultancy Environmental Protection Group provided an insight into the design of cascade blue roof systems. Such set-ups add even more resilience by reducing discharge into sewers and reducing the need for potable water by allowing the movement of water between roof areas and attenuation zones, and making this water available for passive irrigation to support green assets. Samuel Evans, Head of Environment Policy, at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, outlined how the authority is working to encourage private investment in natural capital. Exciting plans are already afoot to form a portfolio of retrofit projects, where the savings in sewer charges offered by United Utilities could provide a return on investment for would-be funders. The final speaker, Francis Hesketh, director at the Environmental Partnership, explained the value of ecosystem services. Both he and Evans referenced Greater Manchester’s impressive mappinggm.org.uk resource which now contains an overlay providing a colour-coded Ecosystem Services score which will help inform planning and biodiversity net gain goals. Polypipe’s next e-roadshow, which will tell the story of Wales’ SuDS journey, is on 23 June and features speakers from Cardiff City Council, Kew Planning and Noel Isherwood Architects. Realising Resilience events centred on Birmingham and London follow on 30 June and 7 July respectively. For information on the full programme and details of how to register visit: – https://www.polypipe.com/roadshow-2020 Pic caption: The move to a shallow invert Permavoid attenuation solution on Angel Gardens, Manchester, allowed the creation of a two storey, 146 space basement car park.
United Utilities (UU) has announced in its latest trading statement that it is continuing to accelerate its AMP6 capital investment programme this year. The accelerated programme will allow the firm to deliver operational benefits early customer service, enhancing asset resilience and optimising performance under its outcome delivery incentives (ODIs). Total regulatory capital investment for 2016/17, including infrastructure renewals expenditure, is anticipated to be around £800 million, which is similar to last year. This continued high investment level will help UU to improve and maintain customer services, deliver more environmental benefits and provide a major contribution to the regional economy. The firm said it has seen continued strong performance in the areas of pollution incidents and private sewers. It added that the modernisation programme at its Davyhulme wastewater treatment works is also progressing well. UU said in a statement that its current trading is in line with group expectations for the six months ending September 30, 2016.It continued to deliver improvements in operational performance and customer service. Earlier in the year, UU attained ‘industry leading company’ status, as measured through the annual assessment of the Environment Agency, and earlier in the month it retained its Dow Jones Sustainability Index ‘World Class’ rating for the ninth year in succession. The firm said it was also encouraged by Ofwat’s 2016/17 first wave service incentive mechanism (SIM) qualitative score, which highlights more improvement in customer satisfaction in comparison with the previous year. The company said it will also continue to invest in its ‘systems thinking’ approach, which integrates the use of its assets, leverages data intelligence and employs new work processes and technology to support operational performance enhancement. It will roll out additional new capability later in the year, supporting its drive for more improvement. Group revenue is expected to be slightly lower than the first half of last year, reflecting the accounting impact of UU’s Water Plus business retail joint venture, which completed on June 1, partly offset by its allowed regulatory revenue changes.
