Warrendene Road Drainage Works

This is scheduled to take place next week starting 23^rd February. My understanding is that the initial focus is on clearance and deepening of the ditch, but they should additionally be jetting the drains as well. I am also hopeful that several reported drainage problems will be resolved at this point. At a later point the road drains will be removed and replaced with larger models.

It will be helpful if you can keep an eye open for any work relating to your own particular issue. I will be visiting several times to see what is happening and will try to check in with James Tunnard during the period of the work.

Sewage Issues near the Village hall

I am glad to say that the garden flooding experienced at Woodland Cottage in Valley Road has been resolved for the present – a partial blockage was found in the back sewer down near its junction with the Boss Lane sewer.

However, Matt Hopkins reports that the levels in that sewer remain high and that TW have indicated that the sewer is overloaded from the park through to High Wycombe. TW are believed to be working to alleviate this.

As a result of this the network is backing up towards Hughenden Valley. Hopefully, this is not a sign of problems to come for us near the village hall. I have checked my inspection pit this morning – it is perhaps 10% full, it was empty this time last week.

               This update only affects residents in the lower end of Hughenden Valley in the village hall aea.

You may have noticed TW and Lanes Drains vehicles have been putting in an appearance quite frequently over the past few weeks.

There is a back sewer that runs through Matt Hopkins’ field that faces onto Valley Road. The sewer then runs along the back of the row of the white cottages through to Boss Ln where there is a junction with the Boss Ln sewer and the one that runs along the back of the houses from Herrison House. The Boss Ln sewer then joins the main sewer in Valley Rd.

Matt had experienced a sewage leak in his field from one of his inspection pits before Christmas and again in January. It has taken several visits to resolve this – a blockage of some sort. Subsequently, one of the white cottages on Valley Rd has been suffering considerable discharge of sewage over a prolonged period in the last few weeks. The garden is seriously flooded but repeated visits by TW have not resolved this problem. Their efforts have essentially diagnosed a ‘Hydraulic Overload’ (too much water) whereas we consider this to be a blockage of some sort.

It is clear that this back sewer is mostly full and what’s more is that this fullness appears to run up to the main sewer and then along to the bus stop opposite the village hall. We are pushing TW to start tankering and investigate what is going on here. They are promising to respond. Our main concern is for them to get a handle on this and ensure that the initial sewage spill is properly resolved and that no other residents are affected. Fingers crossed they get their act together on this.

I have checked my front drive inspection pit this morning and this is quite empty, which is how it should be and suggests the main sewer is running normally. However, this does not accord with TW reporting that the level of the sewer opposite the village hall is high. It may be worth checking the level in your inspection pit.

Rgds

Paul

Cancelled Floods Meeting

I am sure that many of you were disappointed and not a little irritated that the planned January 14^th Floods Meeting was cancelled at very short notice. This was because Cllr Jilly Jordan herself was called away on urgent business and we felt we had no option other than to cancel the meeting. However, we have been hard at work since then and I think this update can provide some optimism for the future.

Our initial thoughts had been to coordinate a new date soon, perhaps in the first half of February. However, since then, David Carroll our local Bucks Cllr, has been successful in arranging an on-site meeting for the DIG with Steve Broadbent, Cabinet Member for Transport who has responsibility for highways drainage. This meet-up happened earlier this week.

This was a very constructive meeting and we learnt from Steve about a program of work initiated by Highways along Warrendene Rd and Bryants.

Program of Work in Warrendene & Bryants

This work will include:

• Cutting back of grass & undergrowth along the edge of the Warrendene ditch. Many of you will have seen this work has already started.
• From 23^rd February work will start using heavy machinery to clear out the ditch along its length. Apparently, this has not been done for 8 years so very timely.
• Road drains will be cleared through to the ditch. At a later point (and subject to capital budget) the road drains will be changed over to larger models.
• The ditch on Hampden Rd (up above the Warrendene crossroads) will be cleared out.
• The section of the Bryants Bottom Rd between Warrendene and Bryants Bottom that is prone to flooding will be dealt with. This will involve clearance of undergrowth at the roadside and the creation of a runoff area.

Natural Flood Management

I have also been able to obtain an update from Andrew Morsley about the Natural Flood Management project. The significance of this is that he expects his field work, analysis and report production work to be completed soon. His intention is to hold a meeting with interested residents at the Hughenden Valley Village Hall very likely in March, which the HVRA DIG will coordinate for him. I am hopeful this meeting will provide us with some answers as to how the flood water from the Hampden area can be alleviated.

The nett result of this progress of events is that we are decided that it will not be beneficial at this stage to organise an early follow-up to the Floods Meeting. We will instead concentrate on a March meeting and we will also invite Jilly Jordan to talk at that meeting. Meanwhile I hope that this update provides some welcome relief regarding the flooding problems experienced as it shows our concerns are being noticed and acted upon. Our thanks to all the residents who have shown interest in this situation and who frequently monitor, report problems to the council and even get their hands dirty doing routine maintenance jobs such as clearing drain tops and blocked grids.

The Stream is Up

Those living in the southern part of Hughenden Valley, typically near the pumping station, will be aware that the stream is rising and starting to run in the watercourses/ditches in our back gardens. As you know, the rising of the stream works its way backwards though the village up to Warrendene. So, if it’s not running with you presently, it likely will soon.

This is a good time for all residents who have the stream run through their garden, to check and clear the watercourse of rubbish, leaves and other detritus. It is your responsibility to ensure that the watercourse is kept clear under the laws of Riparian Responsibilities.

The stream running at this stage of the winter is often a sign that groundwater will be getting into the sewage network and perhaps causing issues with sewage spillages. Thames Water have clearly been visiting the area, doing CCTV surveys and clearing some blockages here and there. We can only hope that the network copes this year, as we don’t really want to see the installation of pumping equipment like happened last year.

Paul Woodford, DIG

• Floods Meeting with Jilly Johnson

A meeting has been organised with Jilly Jordan, the Bucks Council Deputy Cabinet Member Environment and Climate Change. This will take place in the HVVH small hall on Tuesday 14^th January at 7.30pm. This meeting will be for the HVRA committee plus residents that have been directly affected by the flooding near the Harrow and similarly affected residents in Bryants Bottom. These residents will be contacted by a leaflet drop.

It is anticipated that a further meeting will be held with a wider audience later to present potential NFM measures, as below. We are then hoping that any promised NFM work would be combined with improvements by Bucks Council to the drainage network.

The DIG are trying to get a meeting with Steve Broadbent, the Cabinet Member for Transport, but has been met with no response so far.

• Natural Flood Management Work

Andrew Morsley’s work has continued this month, this includes covering Bryants Bottom in has analysis. BB suffered bad flooding in 2018, but this continues to be a threat, mostly from field runoff.

Andrew has indicated that once he has completed his field work, he will develop the concept for natural flood management opportunities for Hughenden. He will then build a model to verify them. The plan then is to host an event in early 2025 for the local community to go through the opportunities and prioritise them.

• Paper Submitted to Flood Response Committee

The committee findings report from the inquiry has been circulated to the DIG distribution and has been placed on the DIG website on the documents page for wider access.

• Thames Water

I have a done a chase up on Maisie Banks, out TW customer representative. She has confirmed that the analysis promised for a hydro-brake for Hughenden Valley is still very much ongoing. No promise of a date on that, which is less of a surprise.

Paul Woodford

2 Dec 2024

• Flooding this Month

Another flooding event happened in the Warrendene area, on Saturday 19^th October following a prolonged downpour. The Harrow was flooded internally as was at least one of the houses along Valley Road towards Deeters.

Following efforts by David Carroll on our behalf, he has been able to hold an online meeting with Jilly Jordan, the Bucks Council Deputy Cabinet Member Environment and Climate Change. She has provided us with a detailed letter, with input provided by the Flood Management team. This is attached for you to read.

Jilly has agreed to a meeting with us and residents in the New Year. HVRA DIG intend that this  this meeting should be a start in getting a Capital Works project underway for Warrendene.

HVRA will discuss this letter with David Carroll at the Tuesday 5^th Nov monthly meeting. We have noted several inconsistencies in the letter and will reply to Jilly in the next few days about them. Meanwhile, it is attached for you to read.

• Update from Andrew Morsley on Natural Flood Management

As you know, Andrew is engaged through Bucks Council investigating the causes and producing potential solutions to the surface water making its way down to and causing flooding in Warrendene. Andrew reports:

• I have installed a camera at Winnies cottage and a pressure transducer in the ditch on Warrendene rd.  We captured the storm 10 days or so ago.  I will retrieve camera data next week:

1. I have meeting with a number of landowners, including Hampden estate this week.   I will follow up with site visits in the coming weeks.   If appropriate I will invite you along.
2. Modelling has been been commissioned; I expect initial results in December.
3. We have spoken to the council about property flood resilience (PFR ) and they have agreed that this can form part of our recommendations and they are exploring funding options.

• Paper Submitted to Flood Response Committee

We provided a paper to the Bucks Select Committee on Flood Response in mid-September, which was circulated to the DIG.

The committee has just issued its findings from the inquiry. I will circulate that in the next week or two.

Paul Wooodford

4 Nov 2024

I am sorry if you are a subscriber to the HVRA website and regularly receive notices of events etc from the website.

I have just been in the process of updating the DIG blog where I normally post articles on a regular basis, but had fallen behind in doing this. I hadn’t realised all the updates would be posted out to subscribers.

My apologies for this.

Rgds

Paul Woodford

Hi All,

               In my last mail I mentioned Andrew Morsley, a hydrologist working for the River Thame Conservation Trust (RTCT). He is known to a number of you because he stopped off and spoke with a number of residents in the Warrendene area on the day of the flooding there (23^rd September).

RTCT is engaged to work on Natural Flood management in connection with the flooding experienced in the upper reaches of the Hughenden Stream. His client ultimately is Bucks Council.

Sarah Mustapha and I met with Andrew and Chels Hotham (Andrew’s colleague and engagement officer) last week. This was essentially for us to provide an introduction to the DIG and for us to inform them as much as possible about our experience with all aspects of flooding (sewage, stream, groundwater, surface water) affecting our area. He wanted to understand our knowledge of risk points, experience with dealing with the Council and so on.

After the meeting we did a brief walk round the lower part of the Valley – the area most affected by sewage flooding in recent years. Then we moved on to the Warrendene area which Andrew has already visited, and we picked up David Anderson for a drive up towards Hampden Crossroads. David is a long-term Hughenden resident, with excellent knowledge of the surrounding countryside and was flooded recently (in addition to several times in the past).

A significant part of Andrew’s role is to liaise with local farmers to understand flow mechanisms, come up with options for flood retention measures. Andrew will then be modelling the impact of proposed measures and when justified and agreed to by landowners, ultimately build water retention measures on the farms.  So one of the first things we did was to call at Upper Warren Farm and spoke with Sally and Simon Lloyd. This provided Andrew with significant pointers on field and farm ownerships in the area. From there we went further up Hampden Road with Andrew noting risks/opportunities along the way.

We stopped at East Lane further up. This is a steep little used lane to the left; it is primarily from the steeply sloping field on the corner that Dave had experienced a number of times large amounts of runoff from the clay capped fields down onto the road, which would then run right down into Warrendene. We finished our tour with a stop at the Hampden Arms, where Andrew was able to pick up contact information for the Hampden Estate as well as more local knowledge on our issues.

Andrew will be engaged with this work in the coming weeks, which will involve liaising with Farms on flood management measures. The ultimate aim above Hughenden Valley will be to deal & reduce water sweeping down into our village through a variety of actions including:

• Creation of water runoff channels
• Swales
• Pools
• Ditches 

In the shorter term, it is hoped that the Council can be persuaded to implement immediate changes to the Warrendene area to reduce the flooding. These could include:

• Alterations to the Warrendene ditch
• Creation of pooling area
• Addition of extra resources to divert surface water from road into ditch
• Provision of assistance to householders to prevent flood water entering properties from road

Rgds

Paul