Report by Parish Chairman, Nick Webster

Early on Friday morning, 21st June 2019 I received a call from Greg, our Lengthsman, to let me know that both he and Tony Wouldedge, the groundworks engineer, were on site making a start on clearing the clogged watercourse at the bottom of Snuff Mill Lane. As soon as I arrived it was very apparent that it had been a very long time since the ditch was last cleared. Tony is a very experienced digger operator and his high level of skill and economy of action was soon apparent as the ditch was carefully scraped out. Three eels were discovered in the mud and were escorted to safer waters. As it would have been prohibitively expensive for the Parish to fund removal of so much spoil from the site, the spoil was banked at either side of the dyke. Eventually, we reached the site where Greg and I had rodded the buried drain pipe and had found the blockage to be 15ft under the banking. Digging down to the pipe we found evidence of a previous excavation.  Upon lifting a heavy board and metal gauze, we discovered that in the past a hole had been broken open in the top of the drain pipe presumably to allow it to be rodded further from that point. Taking advice, I authorised the removal of the 15ft of soil and pipework so that we could ascertain the course of the drain. As I had previously observed from the old Ordnance Survey map of 1898 it soon became clear that the pipework took a right turn and entered under the perimeter fence of United Utilities land. This pipe remains three-quarters silted up, allowing a very slow passage of water; I doubt that this restricted flow will be sufficient to take the heavy rains of winter. Furthermore, it would seem that as the blocked and buried drainpipe continues into United Utilities land rectification of the problem is now outside the purview of the parish.