Hillingdon SuDS Design & Evaluation Guide

Amenity grass
An everyday grass surface that can be used
in SuDS features allowing regular public use.
The great advantage of amenity grass is its
availability as purpose grown turf and most
of the time it will establish quickly if properly
laid on ground that is not too wet. It will grow
on the dry shoulders of swales and basins as
well as bases of SuDS features that are
designed to be dry most of the time. It is
useful for providing a 1m wide cosmetic neat
edge to longer grass and as amenity green
space for the community.
Detailed Design
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Amenity turf should be grown on a sandy
loam to aid surface drainage.
Seeding is a cheaper and more flexible
option but can fail easily in adverse
conditions. Coir or jute matting is a
practical way to provide temporary
erosion protection.
A mown edge of amenity grass is often
important where SuDS grass and longer
meadow grass is used to make it clear
that the longer grass is deliberate and to
give a maintained appearance.
Parkside, Bromsgrove.
Amenity grass shallow detention basin feature,
integrated into site design, manages occasional
extreme rainfall.
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Amenity grass is usually mown at 35-
50mm as this is the short-mown grass
preferred by many Councils and is familiar
to the public. This short grass is
susceptible to drought and does not
provide the flow reduction and filtering
required in SuDS.
Design Note:
Avoid turf products with plastic mesh (unless they are bio-degradable) as these introduce
microplastics to the environment. Photo-degradable is not the same as bio-degradable as the
plastic breaks down into microplastics.
London Borough of Hillingdon SuDS D & E Guide
© 2018 McCloy Consulting & Robert Bray Associates