As part of this project we hope to use wet woodland and rainscaping techniques to direct and store water within the green area between Ruskin Road and Runnymede Road. Rainscaping uses a combination of planting, water features and porous surfaces to work with rainfall rather than trying to move the water away. It slows water runoff and allows more water to absorbed. This helps us become more resilient to flooding and helps plants and wildlife too.
The playground will probably need to be relocated to another area of this green open space to accommodate the rainscaping, but don’t worry it will remain! A series of accessible boardwalks will be used to allow access throughout the rainscaped areas. Captured rainwater will be stored and treated using nature-based solutions. This can be used to water the new community garden areas to be installed in the area. The Parks Team at Thurrock Councils can also reuse the stored water to maintain the local green spaces.
The key goals here are to improve drought resilience, reduce water usage and reduce flows into the Anglian Water surface water sewer network. This ultimately flows into Mucking Creek, which can become tide-locked: this means that at high tides the water backs up and is a flood risk.
