More SUDS, less suds

Hornsey Park Road - site for a new SUDS?

When the rain started on Thursday there was a disturbing amount of foam on many of the roadside pools that quickly accumulated on local streets and pavements. Like soap suds. A sad reminder of the pollution that enters our streams and rivers through the surface water drainage system - the problem of run-off from the roads.

One solution that Haringey has been slow to adopt are SUDS - Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems.

These are now a common feature of parks and open spaces and are starting to appear along the side of main roads, like Green Lanes in Enfield.

Water is drained away from standing pools and appropriate planting used to clean out some of the toxic waste. The ‘rain garden’ at Rectory Gardens in Hornsey is the most obvious one round here.

Rectory rain garden after the long dry spell

PMRA want to see much greater investment in this kind of street planning - the proposed new buildout next to the lime trees on Hornsey Park Road is the obvious next opportunity.

As the excellent discussion on our Twitter-feed shows the timid approach on the High Road during the local improvements a couple of years ago has been a failure. Haringey Rivers Forum - following the strong lead given by Joyce Rosser at Sustainable Haringey and the campaigning charity Thames 21 - has called on the borough to take the initiative both in seeking investment and in educating the public.

Certainly in Noel Park ward there are plenty of reasons to pursue the matter - as we see just about it every time it rains.

More SUDS, less suds

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Environment