Decommissioning/removing old soakaway

[AnimatedGIF]

Good afternoon everyone.
We have an old (30+ years) soakaway coming off a conservatory that no longer works and our garden floods in heavy rain. We have access to the surface water drainage system and wish to divert to that, removing the need for the gravel soakaway. It is constructed of gravel surrounded by plastic sheeting.
I see a lot online about constructing these, but not about removing them. Is it simply sufficient to seal off the entrance to the soakaway, or should it be excavated and removed? I wonder of the plastic sheeting around the outside is part of the reason the garden floods in that area, as it is only about 150mm below the surface of the grass. The soakaway is also 2m from the foundations of the conservatory on one side, and 3m from the foundations of our garage on the other side.

Any suggestions welcome. Thanks.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

You're supposed to replace it with a new functioning one or sort the old one out rather than diverting to the sewer.

 

[George_engineer]

Renew the soakaway but install an overflow to the SW drain.

 

[AnimatedGIF]

Thanks for replies

You're supposed to replace it with a new functioning one or sort the old one out rather than diverting to the sewer.

Is there a particular reason why diverting to the surface water sewer would be a bad idea?

Renew the soakaway but install an overflow to the SW drain.

I hadn't thought of doing that. May I ask, what's the benefit to renewing the soakaway in this instance, rather than going straight to the surface water sewer?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Technically you would need to apply to the water company to connect into it, that's why the soakaway was built in the first place though plenty of people do such things, and then complain when the sewers don't work or that drain down the road blocks up etc. In reality if you applied they would say to renew the existing soakaway as presumably the soakaway worked just fine until it eventually got clogged up as soakaways have a lifespan and are supposed to be renewed.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Is there a particular reason why diverting to the surface water sewer would be a bad idea?

Because the idea is to minimise the amount of water, flowing straight to the sewer, particularly during heavy rain.

 

[AnimatedGIF]

All makes sense, thank you for taking the time to explain