Mansfield’s green makeover expands into wider community

Severn Trent has been working in the town centre to introduce sustainable drainage systems to help reduce flooding, including the new memorial garden behind the Old Town Hall, and is now bringing SuDS to the wider community, with work starting in the Ravensdale area.

The aim is to create “a greener, cleaner Mansfield to help protect against flooding, while bringing big community benefits”.

Adam Boucher, Mansfield Green Recovery operations lead, said: “There are things like rain gardens, which will be located in verges or streets, and retention basins, essentially grass depressions able to store water on the surface, keep it clean and either soak that through to the ground, or store it effectively for the duration of a storm event.

“This is going to reduce flood risk and also help the health of our rivers by reducing our storm overflow spill.”

Teams are now working on Ravensdale Avenue, before working along Sandy Lane towards Hibbert Road and then moving onto other streets in the area.

Helen Purdy, of the green recovery project team said: “Our work in Mansfield continues to make great progress, and with work in the town centre continuing we’re excited to now bring SuDS into the heart of the communities.

“We’ll be mainly looking to install permeable paving in this first stage of work on Sandy Lane, so we can continue to keep the parking, while being able to manage rain water and reduce flooding.”

Work is expected to take three months to complete and, Severn Trent said, “teams will be working as quickly and efficiently as possible”.

Ms Purdy said: “While we know this will cause a little disruption, which we’re sorry about, the work will bring big benefits.

“Once the new paving is laid, it will slow down and reduce rainwater, to help reduce the risk of flooding, and still be able to be parked on.

“When this project is completed, those living and visiting Mansfield will be able to enjoy a greener town, that’s protected from flooding while having more green spaces and areas to enjoy – there’s so many benefits to this project, and we’re excited for the community to enjoy them when we’ve finished everything in 2025.”

See stwater.co.uk/Mansfield