Hampshire County Council have been flat out dealing with emergency works in the last few months but recently have been able to catch up with some of the issues we have been raising over winter. One of these is the regular flooding we have seen on Downwood Way.
Several weeks ago I posted an update that Hampshire County Council would be jetting out the drainage to resolve the flooding, but on further investigation this will not address the issue as the drains are not blocked, but the very high groundwater has resulted in the soakaway filling to the top and not draining fast enough.
The team at Hampshire County Council have a plan which means connecting an overflow pipe from the soakaway to a permanent drainage system so that when this fills up, it will overflow into the permanent drains. HCC advise this will be carried out early in the 2014 / 2015 financial year as soon as they can allocate some funds to the works.
Maybe the proposed alterations to the soakaway will alleviate the same problem that we have had for several years in The Vale, being that we are upstream of the Downwood Way flooding?
Hi Geoff, I will put the question to HCC and hopefully they can follow this up for you. Best wishes, guy.
The proposed solution to the Downwood Way flooding seems to be to divert the excess water that the soak-away cannot cope with to a permanent drainage system, presumably the foul drain. The proposed White Dirt Farm Development will significantly increase the pressure on this system and to divert excess surface water to the same system may result in the foul drain backing up into peoples homes. I understand that this already happens in Godwin Close. This solution, therefore, needs to be carefully managed and coordinated so that it is taken into account when planning consent for additional housing in the area is under consideration.
Guy, just to let you know that Downwood Way was again flooded today. It wasn’t as bad as it has been but it was half way across the road.
Also, Horndean village had some flooding, outside where the new builders entrance is. It has never occurred there before
Regards
Ron
Thank you Ron, hopefully there will only be a few more floods on Downwood Way, but I will raise the flooding by gales with the Highways Dept. Thanks, Guy.