The site was originally an electricity sub-station located in the middle of Stamford in a prime riverside position.

The high-density development of 106 units per hectare required every landscape surface to be considered as a SuDS collector and opportunity for cleaning and storing water. The layout of the site prevented normal highway adoption of the site so permeable pavement was used for both roadway and much of the car parking.

Roof water was introduced directly into the permeable paving sub-base through a silt trap chamber and diffuser box or discharged directly into the open rill and canal network. The rills and canals add hugely to the character of the courtyards, providing a large capacity for flow and storage and are fully accessible to all residents with shallow steps down to the normally 150mm deep open water.

Rain falling on the permeable roadway and car spaces filters slowly into crushed stone beneath the surface where it is cleaned and stored before it enters the canal and rill features. Roof water either flows underground into ‘diffuser boxes’, which are protected by silt trap chambers, or drops directly into the rills. In this way the most polluted run-off from roads and car parks has initial cleaning before it enters the open canals and rills. The treated road run-off together with cleaner roof water flows slowly through wetland vegetation before dropping quietly down a stepped rill into the River Welland. The design has control structures that ensure there is storage before water enters the river. The high run-off rate from the site ensures drain down before water arrives in the town from the Lincolnshire Wolds and ensures a clean wetland habitat.

The loose arrangement of street and courtyard space largely paved with permeable block pavement, provides an apparently conventional view of urban development to the visitor. However after further inspection one can see only the grit joints to block pavement and a complete absence of road gullies. 

The place-making value of the main SuDS canal and bridge echoes the major river crossing of the Welland in Stamford. The stepped sites of the two canals mirrors the 1 in 3 safe side slopes of a grass swale. The bottom of the canal and rill contain a shallow wetland of 150mm in the base for visual and biodiversity benefit. When it rains the canals and linking rill rise in anticipation of the river but empty before the main flood volumes reach the town. However, in the meantime the water has been cleaned and gives pleasure to residents as well as a home to wildlife.