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Author Topic: Council ( I assume) draining flooded road right into our turkey barn!  (Read 2117 times)

Aggies

  • Joined Aug 2019
The single track road outside our smallholding floods when it rains and someone, guessing the council, has dug two little drainage ditches into the verge that empty all the water onto our land. Right where our little rather ramshackle turkey barn is sited.

It happened last year too after heavy rains flooded the road.

I know the council has an obligation to keep the roads clear, but this doesn’t seem fair... are they allowed to do this?

It’s not a big job to just fill them in but our field is now pretty saturated. In all fairness the turkeys don’t seem too fussed ????. Should I contact the council or will this only make them come and dig more? Any ideas short of regularly filling them in or building a wall on my land?

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Council ( I assume) draining flooded road right into our turkey barn!
« Reply #1 on: August 06, 2019, 01:48:19 pm »
If it were me I’d talk to the council (or highways, I assume) - but in a non-accusing way!  Just asking whether there’s a reason it has to come off the road exactly there, or whether it might be possible to do it a few feet further down another time.  I’m sure they’ll be informative and possibly helpful if you approach them with an open and friendly manner.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

pgkevet

  • Joined Jul 2011
Re: Council ( I assume) draining flooded road right into our turkey barn!
« Reply #2 on: August 06, 2019, 02:19:28 pm »
They did a similar thing to me a couple fo years ago ater heavy rain. The road used to drain downhill and into the woods but they cut a gulley into the top of my far field hill...created a several day stream and since then a wide tranch of stinging nettles has sprung up all down that hillside.

landroverroy

  • Joined Oct 2010
Re: Council ( I assume) draining flooded road right into our turkey barn!
« Reply #3 on: August 06, 2019, 03:15:09 pm »
It is illegal to drain your water onto someone else's land. I had a similar situation and my solicitor sent Highways a letter. However, you can just ring up the Highways manager and request (forcibly if necessary), with suitable exaggeration of the situation, that he remedies it ASAP. In my case they dug a further channel directing the water into a ditch.
The turkeys might not be fussed at present but they are not the most robust of birds, and it cannot do them any good to have their feet wet.
Rules are made:
  for the guidance of wise men
  and the obedience of fools.

henchard

  • Joined Dec 2010
  • Carmarthenshire
    • Two Retirees Start a New Life in Wales
    • Facebook
Re: Council ( I assume) draining flooded road right into our turkey barn!
« Reply #4 on: August 06, 2019, 04:57:11 pm »
It is illegal to drain your water onto someone else's land. I had a similar situation and my solicitor sent Highways a letter.
You sure about that? Although you may be entitled to compensation

Part of Highways Act 1980 attached


DavidandCollette

  • Joined Dec 2012
Re: Council ( I assume) draining flooded road right into our turkey barn!
« Reply #5 on: August 06, 2019, 06:23:05 pm »
It's quite common round our way (North Lincolnshire) but it's never caused us a problem. You should also point out that they are washing road salt onto your land. ( if they grit the road)

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Council ( I assume) draining flooded road right into our turkey barn!
« Reply #6 on: August 07, 2019, 01:03:36 pm »
This is not quite the same but we are very pleased with the result.  A neighbour with land which is at a slightly lower level to ours, complained that our land drained onto his and that we should 'sort out our drainage'.  Well, water being water and all that, the only place it has to go is onto his land.  Before there was a road, it would have drained way on down the hill to the river, but the road now blocks that and has done so for centuries.  I tried to explain that water flows downhill (although in some places such as Scotland it seems to flow uphill too) but he didn't see that.


Our solution, without having to dig big trenches everywhere, and still have our water draining down onto his land, was to create Soggy Bottom.  We fenced off the area and planted it up with water-using trees such as Alder and Willow, with damp loving wildflowers in there too.  Already, just a year or so later, the water no longer drains onto his land but is happily helping our little wet corner to thrive and be beautiful.  It also is a refuge for hares, yellow hammers and other ground nesting birds, and a hunting ground for kestrels. We have created a new boggy habitat  :thumbsup:  There hasn't been a single comment from next door.


So maybe Aggies you could just give in to the inevitable and create your own Soggy Bottom.  Move the old turkey house to a drier spot, plant up the area with Alder, Willow, maybe Hornbeam, plus damp loving wildflowers, and be pleased whenever it rains and your watering is done for you  :tree: :tree: :tree:
« Last Edit: August 07, 2019, 01:07:46 pm by Fleecewife »
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

landroverroy

  • Joined Oct 2010
Re: Council ( I assume) draining flooded road right into our turkey barn!
« Reply #7 on: August 07, 2019, 02:26:12 pm »
It is illegal to drain your water onto someone else's land. I had a similar situation and my solicitor sent Highways a letter.
You sure about that? Although you may be entitled to compensation

Part of Highways Act 1980 attached


Yes I am sure! If you read the act it says the council can divert the water off the highway. But what it means is that they can make a channel or drain across your land in order to lead the water away. The idea is to lead it to an appropriate ditch or drain, not to flood your land!
Rules are made:
  for the guidance of wise men
  and the obedience of fools.

henchard

  • Joined Dec 2010
  • Carmarthenshire
    • Two Retirees Start a New Life in Wales
    • Facebook
Re: Council ( I assume) draining flooded road right into our turkey barn!
« Reply #8 on: August 07, 2019, 05:55:22 pm »

Yes I am sure! If you read the act it says the council can divert the water off the highway. But what it means is that they can make a channel or drain across your land in order to lead the water away. The idea is to lead it to an appropriate ditch or drain, not to flood your land!
Not according to the Vale of Glamorgan Council (for example) and their Legal Department (who I'm sure have plenty of knowledge). See attached I have underlined the relevant bit which shows that they have powers to 'to discharge water onto adjacent land'

Aggies

  • Joined Aug 2019
Re: Council ( I assume) draining flooded road right into our turkey barn!
« Reply #9 on: August 07, 2019, 10:08:06 pm »
Thanks for all the replies. All interesting stuff. Not sure what I’ll do but think next time it happens I’ll have to chat it through with the council. I’d have thought they’d at least try and contact me before floodi)g my field, pretty rude really!

Wonder what they’d say if I drained my land into theirs... hmmm!

 

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