Flooding in Buckden
Taylors Lane
Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) has begun work on the drainage. All the drains were very seriously blocked, either by mud or tree roots or both. The depth of blockage was about 4 ft. Mud has been pumped out and a Jetting truck has been scheduled to clear the tree roots. The team then flushed the conduit by Taylors Lane upstream and downstream. Upstream was not good, but downstream was fine, so they did not think there was any obstruction in the conduit under the housing development in St Hughes Rd.
The current view is that the responsibility for the drains and the stream lie with CCC and therefore we need to continue to alert them to drainage and flooding issues. The Parish Council will continue to do so, we have also asked our District Councillor Hamish Mason to continue to raise this and our County Councillor Peter Downes. We would also ask that all householders also continue to report issues and lobby CCC about this https://highwaysreporting.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/
Manor Gardens
Anglian Water have carried out investigations in the area and they are clear that it is not a water mains issue. From this they conclude that the continued waterflow is not their responsibility, but is a road drainage problem for CCC. So once again the more people who complain, the higher up the priority list it gets.
Please report via https://highwaysreporting.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/
Preparing for flooding
It has been made clear to us by the District Council that it is the householders responsibility to ensure they have sandbags to protect their properties. We are aware that this has been difficult at this time and therefore the PC Handymen have worked hard to put together a supply of sandbags for house holders use which are stored at the allotments. The PC cannot continue to supply these indefinitely but will continue to do so while the flood alerts remain in place.
Managing flood risk: roles and responsibilities
District and Borough Councils
District and Borough Councils are Risk Management Authorities and key partners in planning local flood risk management. They:
- can carry out flood risk management works on minor watercourses
- work in partnership with LLFAs and other Risk Management Authorities to ensure risks are managed effectively , including in relation to taking decisions on development in their area.
Highways authorities
Highways authorities (the Highways Agency and unitary/county councils) have the lead responsibility for providing and managing highway drainage and roadside ditches under the Highways Act 1980. The owners of land adjoining a highway also have a common-law duty to maintain ditches to prevent them causing a nuisance to road users.
They co-operate with the other Risk Management Authorities to ensure their flood management activities are well coordinated.
Parish Council responsibilities : Our focus and effort is directed at ensuring, as far as possible, that we make relevant organisations aware of flooding issues in the Parish, including how the culverts, streams etc interlink. However, the law on spending Parish Council funds prevents us from doing work affecting roadways (over or under), culverts, streams etc.