Truro has a history of flooding going back over 100 years.

Homes, shops and businesses in the town centre have regularly had to deal with the distress of polluted stormwater entering their properties caused by surface water overwhelming the sewerage system.

In 2013, we began a major £3.5million upgrade to Truro's sewers. The improvements were needed because the sewerage network in parts of the city was no longer able to cope with the demands placed on it.

But we cannot pour concrete and build ever bigger storm storage tanks indefinitely. Truro is growing, the climate is changing, and more and more green space is being concreted over.

Working with the community and local councils, we would like to put in place a sustainable drainage project to remove surface water from the sewerage system.

Sustainable drainage is increasingly used in towns and cities throughout the UK. It works with nature to hold back and disperse stormwater to reduce the impact it has further downstream.

The principles behind sustainable drainage schemes are:

Nature can help us - stormwater can be useful!

At the moment it goes down the drain, often causing flooding, and is pumped away from the town centre to the sewage treatment works where it is treated - all of which costs money.