When is a drain a main river?
Two drainage ditches run perpendicular to Ware and Tamworth Roads but recent events have indicated that these are not ditches but main rivers! It's a long and complicated story so read on...
So, what led up to this?
At our sister organisation, Kingsmead
Neighbourhood Plan's (KNP) recent consultation one of the attendees asked about the dredging of the manifold ditch on the meads; somewhat puzzled we enquired further and found out that this ditch is supposed to run under the New River and empty into the River Lea but that it is blocked.
It used to run from the old sewage works and was changed to be a storm drain only when the sewage works were closed.
What has that to do with Kingsmead?
Well, both the ditches across Tamworth Road empty into this manifold ditch; this manifold ditch is gradually filling up as it is now effectively a long pond so at some point no further water will fit into the ditch potentially causing floods on Mead Lane, Rowleys Road, Tamworth Road and surrounds.
KNP took note, added this to the Action Plan and handed it over to KRA to pursue.
So, what's the problem?
During heavy rainfall on 25th July this year the Rowleys Road ditch overflowed the banks (exacerbated due to the kerb having fallen in) and became a river. This spurred KRA into a action; we had been pursuing a repair to the caved in kerb since October 2020 but Hertfordshire County Council had designated it as not an urgent repair and had no timetable to complete it.
KRA contacted our Hertfordshire County Councillor (HCC), Ben Crystall, who set off to dig into the issue and come back to us. Then a crew arrived on the 12th August to repair the ditch; KRA were elated but only momentarily as we soon realised they were only going to fix a bit of slightly wonky kerb further along and not the bit lying in the bottom of the ditch.
Ben redoubled efforts to get to the bottom of why the wonky and not the broken bit of kerb was being fixed and it turned out that:
The collapsed side of the ditch is not a priority despite the flooding
The works are not a priority because they are a 'stage 2' work and
Any works have to have Environment Agency approval because it is a 'main river'
This approval is required to remove the overgrown vegetation, partially blocking the ditch, at the Cromwell Road end of the ditch although the section from Tamworth Road to the railway appears to be regularly strimmed so it seems curious that the other section is not undertaken concurrently
Further investigation with the Environment Agency 'main river' map indicated that not only was the manifold ditch on the meads a 'main river' but so too were the two ditches. The map below shows the course of the 'main rivers':
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=17cd53dfc524433980cc333726a56386
Where are we now?
So, we have spoken to the Environment Agency about unblocking the manifold ditch; they have explained that due to budget cuts it may not be unblocked but they will look into it. Especially if the houses are flooded.
If there are further incidents of flood or potential flood that residents should call their hotline on:
Telephone: 0800 80 70 60 24-hour service
KRA are pursuing the repair of the ditch on Rowleys Road aided by our County Councillor Ben and hope that it may be done before the weather deteriorates and there is another flood.
KRA committee are discussing whether we should investigate flood defence items for our members (eg flood defence air bricks) and have a talk or similar.
Would KRA members be interested (or at least those that live at the bottom of the hill)? Please let us know at krahertford@gmail.com
KRA will be encouraging people to install permeable coverings on drives and patios to reduce the amount of water entering the storm drains and KRA will be supporting the KNP policy that requires permeable surfaces and Sustainable Urban Drainage on new developments.
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