Foulston Park, Plymouth

Flood Prevention

SDS ensures redevelopment of former community sports facility is flood risk free

Overview

Foulston Park, formerly known as Brickfields Recreation Ground, is a major community and sports hub redevelopment in Devonport, Plymouth. Led by Plymouth Argyle Football Club in partnership with Plymouth City Council, the Argyle Community Trust, and other stakeholders, the £21 million project transforms a long-established but underused site into a modern, accessible facility offering elite training, community sports, and recreational amenities for the city and wider South West. The redevelopment provides a permanent home for the Plymouth Argyle Football Academy, the Argyle Women’s first team, and Plymouth Albion Rugby Club, while supporting public health, youth development, and community engagement.

As part of the site’s sustainable drainage strategy, SDS was appointed to design and install attenuation infrastructure capable of managing surface water runoff from the new pitches, athletics facilities, buildings, and public spaces. The system was required to ensure the redevelopment remained flood risk-free, safeguard high-quality sports surfaces, and provide long-term resilience for intensive community use.

What We Did

SDS supplied and installed two GEOlight® attenuation tanks with a combined total capacity of 229m³ as part of the site-wide SuDS solution. The tanks were designed to store stormwater below ground and regulate discharge into the wider drainage network, ensuring the site could accommodate extreme rainfall events while freeing up valuable surface space for active community use.

The tanks were installed early in the construction programme, ahead of pitch construction and landscaping, and were carefully coordinated with the civil works and phased delivery of sports surfaces and facilities. SDS worked closely with John Luffman Group, Whitebox Construction Management, and Ward Williams to deliver the system efficiently, accommodating site constraints, stakeholder requirements, and the need for minimal visual and operational impact. The solution also supported the project’s sustainability objectives, reducing environmental footprint while providing a durable, low-maintenance drainage system.

Results

The SDS GEOlight® attenuation tanks now form a core part of Foulston Park’s drainage infrastructure, ensuring the site remains protected from surface water flooding. The system enables year-round use of high-quality football pitches, rugby fields, athletics tracks, and community spaces, supporting both professional athletes and local residents. By delivering resilient, low-profile infrastructure beneath one of the South West’s most transformative sports regeneration projects, SDS has helped bring the client vision for better health, education, and community opportunity to life, contributing to a facility that will serve Plymouth for decades to come.

SDS played a crucial role in helping us deliver a drainage solution that is both robust and sustainable from design, manufacture, supply and install, perfectly suited to the scale and ambition of the Foulston Park redevelopment. The SDS team worked seamlessly with our site team to meet tight deadlines and coordinate with the complex phasing of the build, ensuring everything was installed efficiently and without disruption. Their expertise and collaborative approach have been invaluable in making the client vision for Foulston Park a reality.

– Matt Atkins, Operations Director, John Luffman