Page 121 - Oxford City SuDS DESIGN & EVALUATION

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 Detailed Design
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.

■ Amenity turf should be grown on a sandy
loam to aid surface drainage.
Parkside, Bromsgrove.
■ Seeding is a cheaper and more flexible Amenity grass shallow detention basin feature,
option but can fail easily in adverse integrated into site design, manages occasional
extreme rainfall.
conditions. Coir or jute matting is a
practical way to provide temporary

erosion protection.
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■ 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.

■ 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.

Oxford City Council SuDS D & E Guide © 2018 McCloy Consulting & Robert Bray Associates