Today a small group of Valley Road householders met with Jonathan Roberts, the BCC engineer who has been the main contact for the various Valley Road flooding events. Debs Lemon requested this meeting following the 1^st October downpour when the road (and the ditch along Valley Road) was overwhelmed over such a short period.

Regarding work previously discussed with Jonathan, he confirmed that:

1. Road drains and possibly ditches are planned to be cleaned in November

2. Further work to bring into play the large soakaway, believed to be at the corner of Coombe Gdns, is planned for next year, date presently unknown. Jonathan believes this will have a significant impact on reducing the amount of water coming down Coombe Lane and hitting Valley Road.

3. The planned resurfacing of the Village Hall area of Valley Road has been recommended but it seems that there is little sign of this happening. This work would involve changing the camber of the road to prevent water simply sitting on the road.

 For next year’s work, Jonathan has agreed to take on an action to consider introducing house drive defences (e.g. a lip to a drive) and/or gully work along the pavement on the east side of Valley Road. This would probably need to be done from the corner of Boss Lane down to the industrial estate and would involve discussions with householders to ensure everyone’s needs are met. Jonathan can see that where some house owners have altered their drives to prevent water coming in (me included), it simply pushes the problem further along the road.   

This work seems to be really necessary as all the work undertaken so far to improve the road drainage has helped to a degree, but it seems probable that whatever BCC do, we will continue to have water pouring off the road and along the pavements if it rains hard enough.