Memorandum submitted by Dr R A Barnes
(FL 129)
FLOODING ON 20 JULY 2007
SUMMARY
My home was flooded on 20 July. The immediate
cause was Oxfordshire County Council's failure to maintain the
road drainage system coupled with unusually heavy rainfall.
I have warned OCC Highways of the developing
problem on several occasions over (at least) the past four years
but no remedial action has been forthcoming. Friends, colleagues
and contractors have also described experiencing flooding due
to a failure by Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire County
Councils to maintain road drains. The Committee may wish to explore
this cause of quite extensive flooding in areas remote from rivers
and flood plains.
BACKGROUND
1. My home is situated in a rural area of
Oxfordshire. It is not near a river and is not on a flood plain.
The road drainage system in the vicinity consists of open ditches
linked under the carriageway by culverts. Rainwater is supposed
to pass from the carriageway, across the adjacent grass verges
and into the ditches by means of gullies cut through the verges.
These are called "grips".
2. Ditch maintenance is the responsibility
of adjacent landowners although the Highways Authority apparently
has powers to clean them if free water is seen to pass across
the surface of the carriageway. Maintenance of the culverts and
grips are the exclusive responsibility of the Highways Authority.
3. My home lies very close to a road junction
where several ditches come together to form a land drain which
runs through my property. This merging of drainage water is supposed
to be achieved by five culverts all within a few tens of meters
of my home.
4. I have lived at my present address for
20 years. During that period it has never before been flooded,
despite other periods of exceptionally heavy rainfall. Unlike
20 July these have occurred in winter when the fields were already
waterlogged and carrying standing water.
5. As far as I am aware, in the past 20
years Oxfordshire County Council has only once turned out to clean
the culverts but could not locate many of them. They have only
re-cut the grips once over the same period, excavating small (20cm)
channels at random locations along the lanes. In some cases these
were on high ground where drainage water does not accumulate.
Because of their small dimensions, all the new grips were blocked
by new vegetation within two years.
6. Over the past decade it has become apparent
that failure to maintain the road drainage system was having profound
effects on carriageway water retention in the area generally,
not just outside my home. This, in turn, has caused a serious
deterioration in road surfaces by both hydraulic action and freeze/thaw
action.
7. I have brought the situation to the attention
of the Highways Authority on several occasions over the past four
years and have communicated my concerns to an OCC Director of
Services. No remedial action resulted.
8. Flooding of the carriageway outside my
home became so serious last winter that passing vehicles sprayed
standing water over my garden hedge (1.8-2.0m high). This prohibited
the pleasant and peaceful enjoyment of my garden. I again contacted
the Highways Authority and my local (Conservative) County Councillor
but no remedial action was forthcoming.
9. On 20 July this year, during a period
of heavy rain—onto dry soil—the inevitable happened.
Runoff, unable to enter the ditches because of an absence of grips
and unable to pass from ditches on higher ground to those on lower
ground because of blocked culverts, took the only available option
and rushed down the carriageway of three lanes as raging rivers
to meet outside my home.
10. A torrent of water suddenly appeared
under the front hedge heading straight for the house. Although
my wife and I protected the front door with hay bales and constant
baling out with buckets (for 3.5 hours), water entered the rear
of the property as it sought a path to the still only partially
full land drain.
11. It was very clear to my wife and I that
it was not any lack of capacity on the part of the ditches or
land drain that caused our home, garden and outbuildings to be
flooded but that the runoff could not enter them or follow the
appropriate down gradient drainage pathway.
12. Friends, colleagues and contractors
have also described experiencing flooding due to a failure by
Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire County Councils to
maintain road drains. The Committee may wish to explore this cause
of quite extensive flooding in areas remote from rivers and flood
plains.
Dr R A Barnes
October 2007
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