Oakley Green, Fifield and District Community Association Ltd
Environment
Drainage update 12 - 10.01.2013
News on wet spots "2 and 4"

Those who managed to make it to OGAFCA's AGM will have heard the Borough Flood Risk Engineer address the meeting. Mr Hanif Baksh told us that funding had been applied for in order to finally deal properly with our number 2 "wet spot" on Fifield Road at the speed bump near Longlea Nursing Home.

Our attempts to get something done about what we thought was the easiest of all our "wet spots" have been staggering on for 3 years now. The Gas Utility delayed things at the outset because they feared they might have laid a gas main in the ditch. Streetcare had to do test bores to discover if this was in fact the case. It turned out there was no gas main in the ditch.

At least three notices were issued to the landowner to return the ditch to proper working condition. These were all ignored. Normally the next stage would have been referral to the Borough Legal Department. Unfortunately it seems they have been in no state to be able to take on issues like this. While all this was going on OGAFCA volunteers carried out temporary small scale works on two occasions. The Environment Work Group was on the brink of preparing to tackle the full scale project with volunteers using very generously offered equipment.

Thankfully, after seeing photos in the Gallery on the OGAFCA web site and visiting the site after heavy rain, the Flood Risk Engineer finally decided that this had been going on long enough. Mr Baksh included the site in an application for funding and we are very pleased to be able to tell you that this has been approved. We have as yet no indication of when this might be included in the work schedule but we are following up and will keep you informed on the web site and in the newsletter.

We are very grateful to Mr Baksh for having found time in a demanding schedule to look at our relatively minor issue. Mr Baksh has now completed his short contract and moved on to work elsewhere. So Mr Simon Lavin is once again having to put up with us.

Number 4 in our "wet spot" report concerns Coningsby Lane (east). There can hardly be anyone in the local area who is unaware of the water overflowing the ditches in Coningsby Lane and flowing down the lane to the lake that still forms at the junction with the Fifield Road. Mr Lavin has indicated that if local residents are in favour there may be a certain amount of funding available to at last try to do something to improve the situation in Coningsby Lane (east).

The Environment Work Group has consequently delivered letters and reply slips to the 14 households involved. We have asked for a meeting early in the New Year for interested parties to discuss the way forward. We will report on the progress of this project on the web site and in the next Newsletter.