Living With Water and Hull City Council to transform Rosmead Street
Rosmead Street
A partnership between Living With Water and Hull City Council housing team will see Rosmead Street on the west of Rosmead Street, up to the junction with Escourt Street, Hull undergo a transformation in 2023.
The joined-up approach will see new frontages on the properties and the creation of a permeable road to help manage surface water and increase flood resilience.
The permeable paving will be made up of non-porous blocks with spaces between them to allow water to flow through. Surface water is collected underneath and the water’s flow into the sewers is then controlled to reduce the likelihood of flooding.
Living With Water conducted surveys and engagement events with residents to understand how they used the green spaces and what facilities they wanted their street to retain. Maintaining car parking while improving green spaces was the key feedback from residents and this co-creation has been incorporated into the design of the new road surface.
While the permeable road surface is being laid, Hull City Council housing team will begin updating the frontage of the properties, which provides a further opportunity to manage surface water from downpipes and remove them from the traditional drainage system.
Lee Pitcher, general manager at Living With Water and head of partnerships at Yorkshire Water, said: “This is the first project of our Blue Green vision which aims to increase flood resilience in the local area by managing surface water better during periods of heavy rain. We’ve engaged with the local community to understand what’s important to them and how we can work together to implement these measures in a way that works for them day-to-day.
“By timing this scheme alongside Hull City Council's Energy Efficiency and Regeneration Teams upgrade of property frontages on Rosmead Street we’ll be able to keep disruption for residents to a minimum and we hope to see people popping into our events in the coming weeks to talk to us about the work and what it will mean for the flood resilience of their area.”
The Rosmead Street project is the first part of a £23m Living With Water investment in surface water schemes in Hull and East Riding over the next five years.
The work to the road was programmed and completed within the planned six months period with parts of Rosmead Street closed to vehicles during this period.
Community events were held at St John Community Church throughout the build where residents could ask questions, see visualisations of the scheme, and find out more about the timescales and the wider Blue Green vision for Hull.
St Johns Community Church was the central hub for all the resident events and customer dop ins, so at the end of the scheme, the site team enhanced the community garden with new raised beds for planting, 4 new water butts for rain water collection and a 50mtr native hedging to support the re-wilding project encouraging wildlife back into the gardens.
All further customer queries should be sent to the Yorkshire Water Customer enquiries team
Call 0344 848 1099 Monday - Thursday 8am til 5:30pm. Friday 8am til 5pm.
Or email enquiries@livingwithwater.co.uk
Frequently Asked Questions
1. When would the work start?
The work on the road at Rosmead Street is currently forecasted to start Jan 2023.
There is some enabling works in the area which shall be carried out from Nov 2022.
2. Will there be any disruptions to traffic routes?
There will be a road closure in place on Rosmead Street for the duration of the roadworks. The diversion route will be Belmont Street.
3. How long will the work take?
The indicative construction programme for the road is 5-6months.
4. What is surface water flooding?
Surface water flooding happens when rainwater does not drain away through the normal drainage systems or soak into the ground.
When rain falls on a natural landscape, it soaks into the ground (infiltration), evaporates, is taken up by plants (evapotranspiration) and some of it eventually finds its way into streams and rivers.
These stages of the water cycle can be changed when land is altered by development. In urban areas, there tends to be less permeable ground available for infiltration and less vegetation for evapotranspiration.
When rain falls on impermeable surfaces, much more of it turns into surface water runoff, which can cause flooding, pollution, and erosion problems.
5. Who is responsible for the scheme?
Living With Water Partnership.
6. What are your working hours?
Typically 8am to 6pm.
7. Will my refuse still be collected?
Yes – collection point arrangements shall be made prior to works commencing.
8. Will my water bills be affected?
No.
Temporary Car Park Questions
1. Where are the entrance and exits?
The entrance to the Rosmead Street car park is adjacent to number 251 Rosmead Street.
The entrance to the second car park is off Middleburg Street
2. Do I need a permit?
No permits will be issued.
3. How many spaces?
168 spaces across both car parks
4. Where are the lights going to be placed?
The lights will be strategically placed to cause minimal disruption to the neighbouring properties
5. Will security be at both sites?
Yes, 24 hour security at both locations
6. Will the car park be ever locked?
No, because 24 hour security will be located at the entrance
7. Will it be muddy?
No
8. Will there be accessible spaces
Yes, closest to the entrance/exists
9. Any height restrictions -large vehicles?
No, cars and vans will be OK
10. How will you stop shoppers going in during the day?
Whilst we cannot stop shoppers using the car park, we will regularly monitor the car park with our security provision
11. Do I have to pay?
No, this is a free provision for residents disrupted by the works.
Resident Questions
1. Has this type of work been done anywhere nationwide before?
Yes, this work has been completed in many locations across the UK. In Hull the work has been done; Sedgebrook Grove, Land North West Of Roundabout At Wawne Road And Bude Road, Ennerdale Leisure Centre, 851-853 Holderness Road, Bricknell Primary School and Miranda House.
2. Has Yorkshire Water / Living With Water carried out this type of work before?
Yorkshire Water is very experienced in delivering capital schemes and road closures and we have a full project team working on this daily.
3. How serviceable are parts / materials used? Is the shelf life and guarantee long enough to not require future road works too often and for too long?
This is a brand new road with well tested materials, and having a permeable paved road as opposed to the standard tarmac makes servicing much easier as the blocks can be replaced if required.
4. If this is a new technology, it won't have a long record of proven success. How will this impact on property value locally?
Permeable paving is not a new product and has been used at varying degrees on lots of builds. In terms of residential value, having a permeable road will provide your street with additional flood benefits and the frontage scheme following our work will only enhance the look and feel of the street.
5. Is this beneficial in the unfortunate situation of a blockage? When drains block there are numerous other drains nearby to take on the extra load. What if there's a blockage in the sewer? Could this result in flooding/standing water?
The scheme reduces the risk of flooding by providing a large volume of storage which can be used if sewers are blocked or at capacity. At present there is not this capacity, if there is a blockage the sewer would back up and discharge from the highways gullies, manholes, or internal drainage systems. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure that they do not put fats, oils, wet wipes etc down the drains.
6. Why was there no official consultation period for the works being done?
As per previous communications, we started consultation on LWW scheme in November 2021 along with the housing team during their consultation events for the frontage works. We also sent a resident questionnaire out in May 22 and received 118 responses. This along with other events in July, August, September and October helped us feed into the design of the scheme, the residents views and aspirations. In total we have conducted 13 touch points with residents, either in person or via letters sent and hand delivered - so we feel that we have completed a consultation period.
7. What can be done to create a "drop off point" at each end of the street for deliveries and waiting taxis? It's currently all double yellow lines, which some residents are even parking on, clogging up the junction.
Creating a drop off point at the Church end of Rosmead Street is difficult due to the restrictive space and the yellow lines, which could result in a parking ticket. In terms of Newbridge Road, the narrowing of the road exit allows a natural drop off point and we have placed the fencing back to allow this.
8. Are the works still on course? Or are there any expected delays to the 6 month target?
The works are on schedule and we are not anticipating any delays. Our partners are working proactively to ensure timings are kept.
9. Rumours are circulating about putting permanent planters (or similar) on the road. Can this be confirmed? Residents are concerned that Rosmead St is already difficult for parking, and this plan is guaranteed to make this worse.
Following consultation with residents in the spring and summer of 2022, parking was the most critical element to preserve during the creation of a flood scheme. However, another key theme from the consultation events was the desire for more green space and nature. Along with similar schemes in the area and in collaboration with HCC highways and parks and gardens, we are looking at installing some planters at either the top or the bottom of the street to address this request from residents. This will not take away any parking spaces. As part of our 10 engagement events planned in for the duration of works, we will be bringing images of the planters towards the end of March for resident feedback and consultation. We will keep you updated on this.
10. Are there plans to do similar works in surrounding streets in the near future, once Rosmead St is complete?
Yes, we are working in other ward communities right now as part of our co-creation work.
CAR PARKS:
1. Security personnel are not there to protect our cars, but to "box tick" to reduce insurance policies. They are there to protect the lighting, the fencing, and the flooring, contrary to what we were told "car parks will be available for residents with 24 hour security" can CCTV be installed to protect our vehicles?
Following our meeting with the police and James Moore on the 15th November, we were advised that a dog patrol is better than CCTV, however the police did draw our attention to a CCTV camera that we could ask for coverage on should there be any requirement to do so. Following this advice there are no plans to install CCTV and we have not needed to request CCTV footage from the police.
2. What type of shifts are the security personnel on? Surely being asleep on shift is going against 24 hour security? Security, like anybody, will need down time and rest time, whereby they are not on shift.
As per the communications on 18th January, security guards operate on 12 hours shift patterns. There are 6 guards in total, 2 in the larger car park, 2 in the Middleburg car park and 2 for the street to allow emergency access if required.
3. Are security expected to do regular patrols of the parking sites, as it seems some do, and some don't.
Our security guards do regular patrols dependant on any activity within the car parks.
4. Can residents be made aware formally of the heightened risks to parking in current crime hotspots. LWW advise residents to use the car parks but failed to inform them of their knowledge of criminal damages happening to cars since autumn. Maybe with that incentive, residents can make a more informed choice of where to park, which in turn, may remedy the frustrations of residents on neighbouring streets.
LWW were not made aware of any spate in criminal damages until Ms Glovers car was damaged on David Lister Drive on January 17th when we contacted the police. In our meeting in November with the police, we were informed of a few anti-social behaviour incidents with regular drinkers, but were informed that it was, in all, a quiet area. The temporary car parks are well lit and there are plenty of spaces for the residents of Rosmead Street to park here without using other streets, however that is their choice.
5. What can be done to light up the Newbridge road car park properly? Residents have proven it to be pitch black through the night. This isn't satisfactory.
We were made aware of the lighting issue on Newbridge and that has now been rectified by adding an additional lighting rig.
General Safety
1. Some residents don't feel safe walking down the street now it is so quiet and "dingey". Can a PCSO /police patrol route be requested to make this less so? We also worry that the wrong crowds may notice how quiet and dark the street is which may raise crime levels for our community.
We did ask this of the police and they did say that they would reroute PCSOs down there. They also attended the consultation events with us to answer any questions raised. The police attend St Johns on a Tuesday between 10-11am so possibly if residents do feel unsafe you could have conversations directly with them. We have requested this again to PC Chapman along with some information about the amount of crime since the works started.
2. Emergency services access to the street. Residents are requesting some information about the plans in place for emergency services to access all areas of the street at all times. If suitable plans are in place, with emergency services aware of the plans, this will reassure residents during the unfortunate panic that naturally comes with an emergency situation.
Every Friday we update all blue light services with our progress and the entrance points for emergencies. At this time they are happy with that communication and have placed a security guard as excavation has increased to facilitate quick access to site.
