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Oakley Green, Fifield and District Community Association Ltd |
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Environment |
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| Environment | |
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| Drainage | |
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Drainage update 13 - 28.04.2013 | ||
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“Wet Spot” number 1 at the cricket ground on Oakley Green Road flooded again earlier this year but it didn’t last long. This hasn’t been happening regularly for quite a while so we assume for the moment that this was due to exceptional volume of rainfall. A flash flood. We will have to re-visit if it keeps doing it.
It has been confirmed by Streetcare that “Wet Spot” number 2 at the speed bump on Fifield Road has approved capital funding for the necessary work. To expedite matters Paul Rinder of Stroud Farm had recently offered to do the work free “as a service to the Community”. Simon Lavin of Streetcare insists that as traffic is involved the work must be done by their own contractors. We cannot get a date for this but have simply been told that it will be “added to the work schedule”. There is some possibility that this work may be happening during the last half of May. We have been reserving judgement on “Wet Spot” number 3 at Braywood Lodge on Oakley Green Road and expected a phone call during recent heavy rain. Surprisingly no call came and on passing there did not seem to be any flooding. So maybe after all the work done by OGAFCA volunteers and Streetcare’s pipe-jetting has had some beneficial effect after all. In December we distributed a letter to the 14 households of “Wet Spot” number 4 - Coningsby Lane (east). We collected reply slips indicating support or opposition to what we are trying to achieve - 16 in favour, one against. We submitted those results to Streetcare and had a meeting attended by Simon Lavin of Streetcare, Paul Rinder of Stroud Farm, Charles Wigginton (one of the worst affected residents), Cllr David Coppinger, and Rod Lord for OGAFCA Environment. While we are trying to get agreement on the overall project there will be some smaller scale work shortly. Paul Rinder of Stroud Farm has kindly offered to carry out this work and Streetcare have agreed. The drainage work will involve clearing the ditch opposite the cottages at Coningsby Lane east from the sub-station to the new field entrance. This is intended to increase its capacity to act as a sump. Material excavated from the ditch will be used to re-instate the verges to a greater height to retain water for longer before it overflows onto the road. There is still only a single 6 inch pipe exit for all this water but the aim is to delay the point that the road becomes flooded for as long as possible. In many cases this might be long enough for the rain to stop and water levels to drop again. We have managed to get Highways to agree that while this work is being done we can also re-instate the verge where many vehicles parking have created a muddy quagmire. This will involve removal of some material and the laying of hardcore and road planings. This work is currently scheduled for mid May. During the recent heavy rain “Wet Spot” number 5 on the Oakley Green Road at the field entrance opposite Oakley Green House would once have caused the main road to flood. Thankfully the extra gullies that have been installed seem to have made a considerable difference to the situation. Rod Lord |
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