Public Sewer Maps
In accordance with the Water Industry Act 1991 the Building Control Partnership holds up to date mapping information of all the Public Sewers in the Boroughs of Fareham and Gosport. The Sewers are owned by Southern Water services who have responsibility for dealing with blockages and other problems within their sewers. Most of the sewers are located in the highway (or more correctly, below the highway!). Many are in gardens and private land. It is important to note that the public sewers have a much more important status than the private drains which connect your property to the sewer. Southern Water services needs to ensure access for maintenance, some sewers carry very high flows and the implications of blockage or collapse can be serious: large numbers of people could be deprived of mains drainage.
You may want to know if there are any public sewers in your land if you are contemplating an extension to your house or doing some other works in your property. It is also useful to check for any public sewers within a property you may be interested in buying, it may be difficult to build extensions or there may be risk of sewage flooding from the sewers from time to time.
You can view the Sewer Map information any time during office opening hours, it is held in paper format and electronically. Staff can assist you if necessary.
The Council has a library of information on private drainage also, possibly covering your property, although the information is not comprehensive. To enquire about drainage information serving your property contact Building Control Partnership on telephone 01329 824823
Building Works near Public sewers
If you are likely to be carrying out building works within 3M of the line of a Public sewer, then it is highly likely that formal permission will be needed from Southern Water services prior to commencing work.
Building Regulation applications on sites containing public Sewers have to be sent to Southern Water services for consultation and consent. Southern Water services will normally require the owner of the property being built or extended to pay for a camera survey to be carried out on the sewer to establish its condition, depth and exact position.
A formal agreement called a "building over agreement" will often need to be agreed and signed prior to permission being given by Southern Water services to allow building over or within 3m of their sewer.
If the Public sewer is classed as "minor" then the Building Control Partnership can normally deal with the Public sewer issues without formally consulting with Southern Water services. A minor sewer as one that is less than 225mm in diameter, with an invert level of less than 3.0 meters deep meeting the criteria set out in the document "Building Over Public Sewers"
For further information, please contact the Building Control Partnership on 01329 824823
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