9 Wet Spots 2020
Where are we after 11 years ?
Photos Click pic for larger image to save or print
2 Speed bump - Fifield Road (north)
A protracted saga of official delays, obstruction by utilities companies, and the deployment of OGAFCA volunteers on 2 occasions. In February 2014 Streetcare contractors finally cleared the ditch at (A) on the west side of Fifield Road.

While work was in progress it was noticed that a culvert north of Longlea at (B) was 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 caused a problem further north when entering a pipe just north of Wayside Stables. We requested that the culvert be disabled as the large ditch seems well able to handle whatever flow arrives at that point. Streetcare confirmed that the stoppers they ordered had been installed as a trial.

Wet spot 2 was expanded to include newly reported problems further north on Fifield Road. 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. Repairs were carried out and the two culverts crossing the road in the vicinity of Deeds House were jetted and found to be clear.

Despite being cleared in 2014 by Streetcare the speed bump site at (A) has been regularly flooding once again in winter 2020 and we have therefore returned this wet spot to RED status. An OGAFCA volunteer in February 2020 cleared dumped garden waste and build up of debris. But this spot in the ditch is simply too narrow and too shallow to remain clear and needs annual maintenance at least. As the landowners have repeatedly ignored requests we can only hope that RBWM will again take on this work and also include the ditches and culverts on the east side of the road.