Category: Flooding

Drainage work at William Road

19/3/2014

New Drainage Work at William Road Allotments

Ashford Borough Council will shortly be undertaking work to install a French drain across the rear of the William Road allotment site. The intention is that this will intercept, and carry away, the surplus water which has been running onto the site and causing problems to both allotments and properties on William Road.

The work will commence as soon as the soil conditions permit. The water will be carried into the existing surface ditch which runs across the bottom of the adjacent playing field.

Those allotmenteers whose plots are affected have already been notified in writing, and a letter and plan is available to examine on the noticeboard at the William Road site. The work will not affect any of the properties on William Road as the drain will intercept the water at the other side of the allotments.

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Drainage work on William Road site

4/3/2014

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With a winter which has been the wettest since the reign of George III, it is hardly surprising that the drainage problems on William Road site have been extremely bad. The amount of rain which has fallen on already-saturated clay soils has led to the run-off of thousands of gallons of surface water, and the clay baulks between plots have acted as dams.

It is very important that tenants think before trying to drain of the excess water from their own plots, to ensure that their actions do not lead to a legal nuisance in houses on William Road (where gardens and patios are flooding very badly).

Recently there has been an incident in which someone who was not a plotholder, but who was acting on behalf of a householder, gained access to the allotments and attempted to dig a drainage ditch across several allotments to divert water away from the house.

Plotholders should be aware that people who are not tenants are only allowed on the site at the invitation of a tenant, and that anyone else who enters the site and attempts to interfere with plots is breaking the law. (It is normal to allow householders onto the site to maintain their own boundary fences, but for no other purpose.)

Ashford Borough Council has scheduled the installation of a proper drain which will take excess water away from the site. This work cannot be done until the ground is dry enough for machinery to work on it, so plotholders will have to wait till the clay has firmed up. Until then, please do not do anything which could cause problems later.

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William Road flooding update

5/2/2014

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Southern Water have confirmed there is a blocked drain somewhere, and certainly there is a problem with the drainage from the lock-up garages. However, as the whole site is so poorly drained, drainage officer Steve Parish thinks the answer may be to lay a proper land drain to take excess water off the site. Whether this would deal with the problems caused by flash floods is less clear. A ditch to take water from the back of the gardens in Musgrove into the main ditch on the playing field would be a relatively inexpensive and permanent solution.

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"Nothing to report, sah!" from William Road site

15/1/2014

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ON THE FLOODING: Immediately after returning from leave, Steve Parish contacted Southern Water to get them to do a full survey to isolate the cause of the problem. There was activity by contractors over there on Saturday 11th so let's hope that was part of it.
ELECTION OF ALLOTMENT REP: nothing has been heard. Eileen Law says they are still waiting to hear back from the ballot winner. The next meeting of reps is on the 22nd, so let's hope the new rep at least knows who they are!

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STORM DAMAGE

4/1/2014

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CHECK YOUR PLOT FOR STORM DAMAGE WITHOUT DELAY

Was this your shed? On William Road site.

If you haven't already bitten the bullet and checked your plot for storm damage, then gird up your loins and go down this weekend. Although other areas of Kent have had it a lot worse, there has been damage to sheds, greenhouses and polytunnels. You may not be able to repair anything just yet, but you can move tools etc to safety.

Please send reports of damaged fences, trees down or any other damage to the council infrastructure to Eileen Law at [email protected] and follow them up with a phonecall to 01233 330476 in office hours - an email may get overlooked.

If you haven't already let us know your email address, and are happy to have it held on the Committee's database (it won't go anywhere else, we assure you!) then please do send it to [email protected] without delay. Having your address on the database will mean you can be notified of anything which you need to know promptly, without relying on the council, who have made allotments their lowest priority.

We have been notified of two damaged sheds on William Road site, and do not have contact details for the owners. Dave and Cheryl's shed has lost its roof - if you know them please tell them - and a shed made of twin-wall brown polycarbonate, of the kind sold inexpensively by DIY stores, has so completely dismantled itself and blown away that we are not sure even where it came from - possibly John's plot? - on the larger side of William Road site.

Flooding on William Road site was so bad on Christmas Eve that council officials issued sandbags to protect 8 houses on William Road itself which were at risk. If you are affected by this problem it is being dealt with by Helen Wilson at [email protected] , or phone in on 01233 330476. The ward councillor for the area is Jeremy Adby at [email protected], and he is aware of the problem. By all means contact him, as he should know how many people are affected.

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Flooding update

22/11/2013

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From Gilda.

The William Road flooding problem is now being dealt with by Helen Wilson at Streetscene (the same contact details as for the allotments.) She takes the matter very seriously and is actively pursuing a solution.

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More on that flooding

12/11/2013

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The water just keeps coming. Southern Water are being sadly unorganised and dismissive. Today 2 contractors came out and told our local correspondent Gilda Puckett

All the water filling the allotments and flooding the back gardens of 8 properties in William Road is the rain water running off from 2 back gardens on Musgrove
The drain under these 2 back gardens isn't blocked, and if it is it is the responsibility of the council, and anyway there is no drain under these gardens, all the water goes into drains on Musgrove.
The maps Southern Water have, and which they were discussing with your correspondent, are all wrong
The only reason the water is backing up into the back gardens is that the ditch is too silted up, so the water which is flowing out of the pipe from another drain (I wonder if that one exists?) is backing up and coming up 2-3ft higher up in those gardens. Out of a drain which is, of course, neither blocked nor collapsed.

Bring me my rifle and canoe, I'm going shooting crocodiles!

I may have got some of the details wrong but that was the gist. The good news is that two willing and resolute chaps from Landscape Services are out there right now with a mini-digger, clearing the ditch, so we'll see . . . .
Meanwhile, the
allotments still look
like this.

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Drainage work at William Road

Drainage work on William Road site

William Road flooding update

"Nothing to report, sah!" from William Road site

STORM DAMAGE

CHECK YOUR PLOT FOR STORM DAMAGE WITHOUT DELAY

Flooding update

More on that flooding

This website is happy to publicise all garden-related events.
All the news, views and information posted on this website are produced and written by the website compiler, unless it says otherwise.

Categories

Archives

Drainage work at William Road

Drainage work on William Road site

William Road flooding update

"Nothing to report, sah!" from William Road site

STORM DAMAGE

CHECK YOUR PLOT FOR STORM DAMAGE WITHOUT DELAY

Flooding update

More on that flooding

This website is happy to publicise all garden-related events.All the news, views and information posted on this website are produced and written by the website compiler, unless it says otherwise.

Categories

Archives

This website is happy to publicise all garden-related events.
All the news, views and information posted on this website are produced and written by the website compiler, unless it says otherwise.