Floods Meeting Tuesday 17th June

End of February Update

Sewage Issues There is a back sewer that runs through the Hopkins Farm 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. This sewer had been causing spillages in the farm field and in late January started spilling into the garden of Woodland Cottage on Valley Road. After many visits by Thames Water, including removal of a partial blockage, a tankering operation and CCTV work, we think this problem is now sorted, although…

DIG Update 20 February 2025

Warrendene Road Drainage Works This is scheduled to take place next week starting 23rd 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…

DIG Update 10 Feb 2025

               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.…

DIG Update End January 2025

Cancelled Floods Meeting I am sure that many of you were disappointed and not a little irritated that the planned January 14th 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,…

DIG Report End November 2024

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 14th 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…

DIG End October Report

Another flooding event happened in the Warrendene area, on Saturday 19th 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…

Apologies from DIG

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

DIG Update 9 Oct 2024

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 (23rd 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…

DIG Report End Sept 2024

Following our follow up letter to Bucks Council on the February flooding, we received a response from the Council dated 5th September from a Community Liaison Officer assuring us that they are confident that the drainage system in place is adequate and with proper maintenance the flooding will not happen again. Our request for a meeting has been ignored. Since then, of course, the Harrow and multiple gardens were flooded on 23 September. It’s terrible that another flooding has occurred in the Harrow area following a very heavy period of rain over the weekend. From what understand the…

DIG Update 24 Sept 2024

Hi All,                It’s terrible that another flooding has occurred in the Harrow area following a very heavy period of rain over the weekend. From what we hear at this end of the Valley, the response from the Council and Fire Services has not been great. On this subject I am enclosing a couple of letters in connection with our pursuing Bucks Council to take action regarding the repeated flooding. The first is our letter to the council of 5th August which was following up again on the February flooding. The second letter is response from the Council…

DIG Report End Aug 2024

We have written to Rosie Tunnard in early August. This letter refuted the Council’s response that the Harrow/Warrendene area is properly maintained but was simply overwhelmed by exceptional rain that day in February. We have requested a meeting to discuss works we consider necessary to improve the area’s drainage. The DIG has been invited to present to the Bucks Council Select Committee on Flooding Response. Paulw will present on 23rd September the result of our experiences with local flooding events and the council’s response to it. Overpumping at the Surgery now is largely forgotten; all  equipment is removed…

DIG Update 27 July 2024

Hi All,                Please find enclosed a short update on DIG activities. We have not yet followed up with our reply to Bucks Council regarding the Harrow area floods. We need to do some more checks before writing to the Council and suggesting a plan for drainage improvement in the whole Warrendene and Harrow area. Pumping out at the Surgery has continued through June, although TW have reduced the revs on the overpumping equipment because of lowered sewer levels. A casual inspection at the month end suggests that the sewer levels are now very low and we expect…

Overpumping Update 8 July 2024

Hi All,                Just sharing a response from Maisie Banks regarding the overpumping units. We had felt that the pumps should be retained for a while longer because of the recent heavy rain, but obviously TW don’t think it necessary. Rgds Paul From: Maisie Banks <Maisie.Banks@thameswater.co.uk>Sent: Monday, July 8, 2024 2:36 PMTo: pbwoodford@icloud.comSubject: RE: Hughenden Valley Status Hi Paul, Hope you are okay, I have spoken to Lynda who has been monitoring the levels in within our sewer network, as the levels have dropped we turned the over pump off on Thursday 4th July and since then we…

DIG Update 1 July 2024

Hi All,                Please find enclosed a short update on DIG activities. We have not yet followed up with our reply to Bucks Council regarding the Harrow area floods. We need to do some more checks before writing to the Council and suggesting a plan for drainage improvement in the whole Warrendene and Harrow area. Pumping out at the Surgery has continued through June, although TW have reduced the revs on the overpumping equipment because of lowered sewer levels. A casual inspection at the month end suggests that the sewer levels are now very low and we expect…

DIG Report End June 2024

We have not yet followed up with our reply to Bucks Council regarding the Harrow area floods. We need to do some more checks before writing to the Council and suggesting a plan for drainage improvement in the whole Warrendene and Harrow area. Pumping out at the Surgery has continued through June, although TW have reduced the revs on the overpumping equipment because of lowered sewer levels. A casual inspection at the month end suggests that the sewer levels are now very low and we expect the overpumping operation will likely stop soon.  The tankering from Boss Lane…

DIG Report End May 2024

We are slowly progressing towards assembling a response to Bucks Council regarding the Harrow area flooding. Paulw has conducted a visual check on the area up to the top of Warrendene Rd and Matt Hopkins is part way through checking drainage at Hatches, Bryants Bottom Rd and Hampden Rd. We hope to be able to write to Bucks Council by the end of June. Pumping out at the Surgery has continued through this month and tankering from Boss Ln. The latter is becoming increasingly unpopular with the residents of Boss Ln because of noise and access problems. The…

DIG Report End April 2024

We wrote to Rachael Shimmin the Bucks Council CEO requesting an investigation into the causes of the flooding, and have received two replies from Rosie Tunnard. The first essentially describes the flooding as a well maintained drainage system simply being overwhelmed by sheer volume of rain and detritus swept along the road. The second carries some notes from the Flood Management Team, who are putting some work into analysing how the problems occurred. We are currently looking into the contents of these letters and intend to reply soon. However, there are some possible good points in the letters:…

OVERPUMPING UNITS INSTALLED 5 APR 2024

               Sewage overpumping unit installed today by the surgery. Paul

DIG Report 31 March 2024

A DIG meeting was held to discuss the flooding events the Valley had been experiencing in February and March. Attendees were essentially DIG members local to lower Valley Rd affected by the sewage issues. The issues discussed included: Surface water flooding along Warrendene and into the Harrow and gardens close by Sewage leakage problems experienced in lower Valley Road and Boss Lane affecting up to 20 houses caused by prolonged rainfall The meeting spent some considerable time talking about individual experiences, action taken to cope with incidents of flooding and help given by local agencies. Bucks Council It…

DIG Update 12 March 2024

Hi All,                Just letting you know that I have raised a FixMyStreet for us all along this stretch to be offered sandbags to try and contain/direct any sewage leakages. I have also let David Carroll know about this and asked him to try and help the priority on this. I’ll let you know what occurs. Rgds Paul

DIG Report End February 2024

Overnight on 17th/18th February, prolonged overnight rain resulted in some serious flooding at the Harrow and a number of properties along Valley Road towards the school. The road was so badly flooded that a fire appliance was needed to pump out the Harrow car park and flooded gardens. The DIG had raised FixMyStreet cases for the road drains at the Harrow (following the October flood) and we are not convinced this work was done before this second bout of flooding. It is understood that the road drains along that stretch of Valley Road empty directly into the stream…

DIG Update 18 February 2024

Hi All,                In case you are not already aware, last night’s heavy rainfall has resulted in some serious flooding further up the valley, resulting in the Harrow being flooded again and also a number of gardens along Valley Road from the Harrow as far as the turning into the school. Down the Village Hall end of Valley Road, we also are experiencing problems with high sewage levels in our inspection pits. Just 3-4 weeks ago, it seemed quite possible that we would escape the winter without any surcharge problems, but that appears not to be the case…

DIG Update 31 January 2024

               I thought I would drop an update around as there are one or two things going on that might be of interest and it’s coincided with my having to drum up an article for the Hughenden News. As a result this update is a bit wordy….. Rgds Paul HVRA DIG