Special Meeting

The planned DIG Special Meeting took place at the end of January via Zoom and we are now a part of the Hughenden Residents Association and officially known as the HVRA Drainage Improvement Group.  

Peter Cannon was elected Chairman and the meeting discussed matters such as future finances, the constitution, financing and the website. In addition we discussed how the DIG will proceed in future. Changes will take place slowly, starting with the website.

The meeting minutes have been placed on the Docs page.

The Stream, Water Table and the Sewers

The winterbourne stream has kept flowing right the way through this last year. Although it dried up during the summer in the upper reaches, it kept flowing from Church Farm down through the park. And since January, the wet winter has resulted in the stream working its way back up through into Hughenden Valley and along the backs of the houses. I can’t remember seeing the stream running two years in a row in the village before.

This has meant, of course, that the water table is high and is continuing to rise at present. Inevitably, this means that the infiltration of ground water into the sewage system will present a risk of sewage escapes if the rains continue. Neighbours at the south end of the village are monitoring levels in their inspection pits – sewage unable to drain into the main sewer is a sure sign of the sewer being under pressure. Thames Water have been alerted to this.

Trees Rd & Trees Ave

In the last blog I described the drainage issues in these two roads and that we were trying to build a small team of volunteers to periodically clear the drainage grids. The response was far greater than expected and there exists now a WhatsApp group of about 15 neighbours ready to turn out from time to time.

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On 24^th January – the day of some heavy snow in our area, the team assembled for the first clean operation. The job itself is not trivial and the guys were shown by David Mynors from Trees Ave how to dismantle the grids and clear the drainage conduits. All in all, a two hour job in very cold and snowy conditions, but a great result in the end. See the pic.

It is hoped that by doing this work we will build a better relationship with TfB and the councils; hopefully by showing that we can contribute towards looking after the village, they will respond more favourably towards us when we call for help.