Category Archives: Local issues

Clearing Seacourt Stream under the A34 near Wytham

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02/10/09 Seacourt Stream below Wytham: note bank cut back on far side; desilted
02/10/09 silt spread on the field, A34 behind

2 October 2009

Work began a couple of days ago on the Seacourt Stream just below Wytham, where it goes under the A34. The Environment Agency has desilted the stream and cut back the bank immediately above the culvert. We’re told that further work will be done to clear vegetation in the near future.

Kathy Day, Clerk to Wytham Meeting, writes:

‘This is Wytham’s ‘pinch point’ as the water from our part of the flood plain has to flow into the Seacourt Stream, then through the relatively narrow channel under the A34. Our thanks to OFA – and to Nigel Bray, EA, who have listened to the Parish Meeting’s points about this and acted upon them’.

OFA comments:

This work is very welcome. The improvement must maintained by regular maintenance in the future. It should never have been allowed to get into its recent poor state in the first place. Budgets for maintenance need to be substantially increased centrally so the local team can get on with the job. This applies not only here but throughout the Main River system in the area. Good work has been done recently to clear Seacourt Stream below the Botley Road and this is, we understand, to be extended south. Very welcome news but, again, it must be kept clear in future by adequate maintenance.

Temporary barriers for the Hinksey Park area

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22/09/09 Andrew Smith, MP for Oxford East (centre, white shirt) and local councillors came to see the barriers demonstrated
Setting up the barriers
Barrier in place
Now complete with plastic covering

22 September 2009

The Environment Agency demonstrated their new demountable (temporary) flood barriers for the Lake Street / Vicarage Road area this afternoon. The well-attended event showed the barriers being put into place – over 300m in about 1.5 hours. These barriers are to protect houses in Lake Street and surrounding roads which have flooded in recent years.

Earl and Duke Streets

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A Penstock valve
Duke Street, valves going in
The place marked ready for the valves in Earl Street

15 September 2009

The Earl Street/Duke Street Area Working Party is bearing fruit. This inter-agency group was established in response to a suggestion from OFA, quickly taken up by the EA and then taken forward by the agencies involved and OFA, led by John Copley of Oxford City.

Work has now begun. Engineers working for Thames Water are installing Penstock valves in each street. The Duke Street valve has already gone in and another is about to go in in Earl Street. The valves will be operated, if flooding threatens, to isolate the drains north of the Botley Road at this point from those in Earl and Duke Streets to the south, relieving the pressure on the drains there which are easily overwhelmed.

Further work, by Oxford City, will connect the rainwater gullies along both streets into the existing large underground pumps at the southern end, which pump into the meadow beyond.

Hinksey Park barriers

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3 September 2009

On Tuesday 22 September, the Environment Agency will be demonstrating to the public the use of its new demountable flood barriers for Hinksey Park. From 1pm to 3pm, teams will be showing residents how the barriers are erected and dismantled and the speed with which they can be deployed. Experts will be on hand to answer questions.
The barriers are of the same design as those demonstrated to the public at Osney Island in July 2008.
The demountable barriers for Hinksey Park were purchased by the Environment Agency as part of its £1.8m Short Term Measures programme for Oxford. They will help reduce flood risk in Vicarage Lane and Lake Street from the Hinksey Lakes.

Culverts for South Hinksey

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30 July 2009

Members of South Hinksey Parish Council and Peter Rawcliffe of OFA met on site in the village with Peter Dela, Chief Engineer for the Vale of White Horse District Council. Under discussion was the provision of culverts under a raised causeway which leads to the electricity substation on the edge of the village. The causeway dams back water, causing pooling right beside the village early in flood events. Now that Redbridge is being opened up there is a real prospect of getting water away early, so provision of these culverts is important. Hopefully permissions from the landowner and farmer and EA approval will be forthcoming. There seems every prospect that funding will be available from the District Council.

Future short-term measures

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16 July 2009

Andy Webber made a presentation on behalf of OFA to the Oxford Area Flood Partnership (OAFP).

OFA’s principal message was to stress the importance of capitalising on the work already done in clearing the Seacourt/Hinksey Stream from the Botley Road to The Fishes in North Hinksey – and the work which has been or is about to be done to remove serious pinchpoints at Redbridge. The Hinksey Stream between these two areas must now be cleared of obstructions, so allowing the good work already done to have maximum benefit.

Our message was well received. The EA is a principal player in this – the local EA team agree how important this work is and are keen to see it done. Let us hope funding is made available.

Munday’s bridge, April 2009

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Before – note the concrete wall across the channel!
After – the concrete wall removed
Hinksey Drain. Culvert under the railway now cleared and channel on towards Hinksey Stream opened up.

Munday’s underbridge in north Kennington, where the Hinksey Drain passes under the mainline railway. Work to  improve things has been carried out by the EA this month. The area is greatly improved, thank you EA.

But more needs to be done.

 

Earl Street, Duke Street, Bullstake Close Working Party

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19 March 2009

The first meeting of the Earl Street, Duke Street, Bullstake Close Working Party took place on site as planned today. Progress was made with several practical ideas discussed. We look forward to the next meeting when we hope to be able to report more specifically what decisions have been taken and what action will ensue.

Earl Street, Duke Street, Bullstake Close Working Party

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28 February 2009

Earl Street, Duke Street, Bullstake Close Working Party – the first meeting is planned for 19 March 2009. This was proposed by OFA to sort out the serious problems of this area: it will get us and all the authorities concerned together to find answers.

Botley Road area – action

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Earl Street, Duke Street and Bulstake Close were badly affected by flooding in 2000, 2003 and 2007. In the past year four things have been done (or are about to be done) to help:

1.  Oxfordshire County Council has installed a culvert from the south end of Duke Street onto King George’s Meadow beyond.

2 . The footpath at the bottom of Earl Street has been recontoured to improve the flow of water into the alleyway leading to Duke Street.

3 . Clearance of Osney Ditch and the Bulstake and Seacourt Streams south of the Botley Road in Autumn / Winter 2008 by the EA.

4 . Improvements at Redbridge are due to be carried out in March 2009. This should benefit everyone upstream.

As discussed on the Background page the flooding in these streets is a tricky and complicated problem; there is no quick fix. OFA has put forward a number of suggestions over the past year; getting progress has been slow because of the complexity and interdependence of many factors, the need to deal with several agencies and the scale and cost of some potential remedies.
Setting up a dedicated group would, we hope, help achieve results and so we proposed to the EA and to the Oxford Area Flood Partnership (OAFP) that an Inter-Agency Working Party be set up to consider this area, produce solutions and implement them. This was formally agreed to at an OAFP meeting in January 2009. The first meeting should be held in February or early March 2009. Members of this group will come from the EA, Thames Water, Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council and OFA. Edit: held March 19th 2009.

OFA intends that this should be a main focus for action during 2009. We have a number of ideas which we believe merit consideration:

1.  Installation of a culvert from Earl Street to King George’s  meadow.

2.  Alteration of the drains so that water entering the drains north of the Botley Road does not end up in Duke and Earl Streets as it does at present. Thames Water and Oxford City have already begun to examine this.

3.  Reprofiling the Botley Road so that floodwater which at present flows across it into Earl and Duke Streets no longer does so. Instead it could be routed down Lamarsh Road and on via a (new) culvert through the site owned by Kingerlee and earmarked for development at the southern end. It would have to be certain that the commercial premises in Lamarsh Road would not be put at risk. And the agreement of Kingerlee would be essential.

4  The west bank of the Thames just north of the Botley Road is  low so that water flows out of the river onto the fields in large amounts whenever the river is full. This in turn erodes the banks further. It is not clear where this water then goes but it must be a possibility that it contributes to flooding in Earl and Duke Streets and Bullstake Close. More information is needed.

5  Willow Walk may act as a barrier to the movement of flood water downstream. This needs to be verified and the EA has agreed to see whether it already has relevant floodwater level data. Closely related is the poor state of the ditch along the eastern edge of Oatlands Park, with partial or total obstruction in several places. Alternative routes are already under active consideration by OFA and the City Council. The overall solution may be to reroute the ditch, to provide culverts under Willow Walk, or to do both.

Oxford City proposes to build a wall to protect Bullstake Close. The effect of this on Earl and Duke Streets is not fully clear and we have asked the EA to evaluate this, to ensure no worsening of flooding will result for those streets.