2 - Fifield Road at the speed bump near Longlea Nursing Home

Status 0 (overview)     9 "Wetspots" report 2020     Photos

This has now been returned to RED status as the original problem of the unmaintained ditch is now once again causing trouble. THIS DITCH NEEDS TO BE MAINTAINED ANNUALLY, particularly at the point where it squeezes between the speed bump and the hedge. This has not been done since Streetcare finally did it in February 2014.

This needs to be done annually or chaos returns very quickly so we are very fortunate that two local businessmen with the appropriate equipment and expertise have stepped forward and volunteered to do this. OGAFCA have notified the 2 adjacent landowners as we were asked to do by RBWM and the work is due to be carried out in early December 2021. The following is a summary from the volunteers -

“We will provide the labour and equipment to carry out the work and remove all of the waste materials on completion of the works. The plan would be to have a “rolling” workforce, only using enough space for the digger and the dumper to operate, this should be no more than twenty metres in length, the workforce will clear the ditches as they go and progress along the Fifield Road only using the northbound carriageway. We will provide traffic management with the use of stop/go signs and provide road works warning signs up to 500m either side of the working areas. We will also provide road cones and flashing warning beacons as necessary.

  We aim to carry out these works at the end of November and estimate that the works should take two to three days to complete. We will install signs one week before works commence stating “DITCH CLEARANCE WORKS” and the date that the works will start.”



The History ...

This has been a protracted Saga with many official delays and inertia and the deployment of our volunteers with spades and pick axes on two occasions. During 2012 a short term Streetcare consultant (Mr Hanif Baksh) decided to recommend Capital Funding, and this was approved in January 2013. We spent the rest of 2013 pressing for a scheduled date for the work to be carried out.

At the beginning of February 2014 contractors finally appeared on the Fifield Road to begin work.

We were very pleased to report that 5 years of effort to improve what we originally thought was the simplest task had at last borne fruit. The work had finally been done - Hooray ! We thanked Streetcare and we did realise the winter months of 2013-14 presented them with problems much greater than ours but even our comparatively simple "nuisance puddles" are nevertheless of considerable concern to residents.

At the open meeting in Feb 2014 residents raised the issue that spoil from the excavation along the southern stretch had not been removed and remained piled high on the verge. We asked that the excess spoil be removed from the verge. Streetcare confirmed that this would be done, and it was.

While work was in progress it was noticeable that a culvert just north of Longlea has been delivering water from the large eastern ditch into the smaller western stretch. Streetcare said it had been assumed to flow in the opposite direction. The subsequent large volume of water in the smaller capacity western ditch causes a problem by backing up onto the road when it tries to pass into a pipe just north of Wayside Stables. This can surely be improved by not allowing the large flow of water from the much more capacious eastern ditch. We have requested that the culvert be disabled as the large ditch seems well able to handle whatever flow arrives at that point. Streetcare have confirmed that the stoppers they ordered have now been installed and we will analyse further when we are next inundated.

Wet spot 2 was expanded to include problems further north on Fifield Road highlighted by re-establishing the flow at the speed bump. On May 7 2014 a site meeting on Fifield Road at the northern boundary of Wayside Stables included Cllr Burbage, Cllr Coppinger, Simon Lavin of Streetcare, the Residents of the nearby property that had been threatened in the recent heavy rain, Grenville Annetts of OGAFCA and the Environment Work Group drainage volunteer. Subsequently Streetcare investigated pipework running north from that point and discovered an area of suspected damaged pipework on the west side of Fifield Road north of Deeds House. They requested plans for underground utilities so that an order could be raised for the necessary excavation and repair and very soon afterwards we were informed that the work had been carried out. The two culverts crossing the road in the vicinity of Deeds House have been jetted and have been found to be clear.

In September 2014 we therefore tentatively returned this wet spot to green status. Unfortunately the ditch had no further maintenance since then and by 2020 it was again becoming a problem. So we returned this "wet spot" to RED status until we could get something done about it.