FLOODING AND SEWAGE PROBLEMS

Christmas Flooding  [letters]  to Kent Highways and Southern Water. (Southern Water are being particularly helpful after a delay getting up to speed)

Sevenoaks Rd/ Hillview/ Maidstone Rd Sewage : We have met Southern Water engineers who are working hard to achieve a permanent remedy.

STOP PRESS April 2015 - Southern Water authorise program of installation of Non-Return Valves to protect vulnerable proprties, commencing 21 April 2015 PROGRAM NOW COMPLTETED

Sevenoaks Rd suffered sewage breakout over Christmas 2013/14 , but this problem will be resolved by Southern Water increasing maintenance intervals on the manholes to the east, where the blockages occur.

The bigger problems were caused to householders in Maidstone Rd and Hillview Close , where several properties were unoccupied for some weeks whilst the damage caused by sewage inside, and others had problems in gardens. The breakout was caused by a failure of the backup generator when the pump power failed. What is proposed is some form of mechanical barrier to sewage flowing back into these properties, and an external visible warning if the generator fails again, and a proper hotline number to allow residents to contact the engineering control directly.

 Wrotham Rd Flooding Kent Highways and T&MBC met us  with Robert Body, who has already dug a new ditch on his property that has lessened the problem.

Highways now have a new Drainage Engineer for our area, and he is mustard. He has been out and inspected the site, and booked a gully emptier, and a survey team. It is suspected that the pipe under the road is not allowing a free flow, and added to the water flowing from Oaktrees property, the system cannot cope.

The Road Engineer visited at he same time, because it is clear that the excess water is damaging the surface, and you may already have seen the white marks, and some early works. 

This is a problem that has existed for many years, lets hope this time we can get it right. 

Lingfield/ Sandy Ridge Flooding - investigated after residents had raised concerns. The Railway culvert seems to be in fine fettle, but the restoration work at Borough Green Sandpits last summer required ditches to feed runoff water into the railway system, possibly overloading it. A meeting between Roger Body, T&M, Network Rail has been a positive first step: meeting with Environment Agency soon.

 The big problem was last summers restoration of Borough Green Sandpit, which has thrown a lot of extra water to the west, where its only escape route was under the railway bridge.Network Rail are currently drawing up a plan for a new culvert that should take the excess away.The  Environment Agency and KCC are also involved, because this work will throw more water down to the Griggs Way junction, and it rissks a back flow into Annetts Hall. So the job will also entail work on the Griggs Way junction and ditch. Once the water is heading towards the Rec, its no longer a problem.

Below are the Borough Green Sandpits plans. Click each picture for the larger version