John Tucker and Paul Lenaerts attended a meeting of Wiltshire Council’s Operational Flood Working Group yesterday, held at the Air Ambulance base at Semington. The group meets every other month at various locations and is chaired by Wiltshire Councillor Jonathan Seed. Attendees are Flood Wardens and Parish/Town councillors from all over north Wiltshire as well as representatives from the Environment Agency, Network Rail, Highways Agency, Wessex Water and the County Council’s Flood Team.
The forum is a good opportunity for villages and towns to raise any flooding problems and for the various agencies to advise and report on their relevant activities.
John and Paul have been going to these meetings for a few years now and find it a good opportunity to meet other Flood Wardens and the WC Drainage Team, and listen to other peoples’ flooding problems. At previous meetings they have explained Keevil’s “Adopt-a-Drain” scheme which has resulted in requests from fellow Flood Wardens keen to know how it was organised.
This time they reported on a potential problem Keevil may have (see below) and asked when our broken culverts might get repaired. The answer on the latter point was wait until February 2020 to see if Keevil’s need has been prioritised and if so when the repairs might get done.
Paul explained: “The potential problem is that a crack has appeared in the road surface opposite Southview Farm at the east end of Main Street. Although it’s only small, it is at the location where, in 2017, the masonry wall that retained the bank between the ditch and the road, fell in. The Council arranged for this to be repaired and early in 2018, this was done. We were not happy with the repair at the time but our warnings were not heeded and it now seems likely that the bank could collapse again, taking the edge of the road with it. An inspector from WC has already had a look and is monitoring the situation. Watch this space !!”
Paul also makes a big shout-out to the eighteen “Foster Parents” in the Adopt-a-Drain scheme who do sterling work keeping their adopted drains clear: “Thank you for your work and vigilance. Now that majority of the leaves are down, we can have a good clear out of our drains. As we have said many times, the risk of Keevil having a flooding problem is small as long as the drainage network is properly maintained.”
Finally, the Martins Road pond is due to get a good clear-out before the end of January courtesy of the MoD and Chris Awdry. Paul says: “we have done our best with ‘bare hands’ to keep this important (for flood relief and wildlife) watercourse flowing free but it now needs a long reach digger to clear silt that has built up over the years. So don’t be surprised if you see machinery down there soon.”
Paul Lenaerts 12th December 2019
KEEVIL VILLAGE 