Experiencing flooding or sewage spills? This meeting is for you

Residents of Oxford and the surrounding areas are invited to The Oxford Area Flood Partnership 2016 OPEN FORUM at Oxford Town Hall on Tuesday 1 November 2016 from  7 – 9pm.

After a short presentation on the OAFP’s work, you will have the opportunity to put your questions to the Partners themselves:

  • Environment Agency
  • Oxfordshire County Council
  • Oxford City Council
  • Vale of White Horse District Council
  • Thames Water
  • Network Rail

For more information email flooding@oxford.gov.uk

Headington Lake update

There has been concerted action to address the Headington Lake problem within the last 48 hours.

Thames Water drawings show that there is only one surface water sewer on the other side of London Road outside Greggs, and this is being re-checked.

Oxford City Council’s jetting crew attended yesterday. They emptied the gullies and jetted the connections. There was a blockage between the lowest gulley and the main which runs up the centre of London Road. Following the jetting, they flooded the area and it all drained quite rapidly. They went back and checked at around noon yesterday while it was raining. The lake did not reappear so they are hopeful that the issue is now resolved.

If the gulley connection blocks again, County Drainage will have to consider replacing the gully connection across the road, which would mean closing London Road  in sections to carry out the works. This would be done as a last resort, but in the meantime the situation is being monitored by Highways.

Please let us know straightaway if the Lake reappears.

Headington Lake

There were repeated calls for action to tackle the Headington Lake at yesterday’s Ward Focus Meeting. The puddle outside Barclays Bank at the weekend was deeper and wider than ever.

Councillors have sent in a whole catalogue of complaints about this for a long period of time. We discussed it at length with the team leader of the County’s Drainage team today to try and agree a course of action.

There is an underlying problem to which officers refer as “deformation of the carriageway”. That would require significant expenditure on the road surface to resolve.

But the second problem centres on the gulleys and the sewer beneath, responsibility for which is shared by the Council and Thames Water.  Questions that need answering are:

 “Are the gulleys in good working order?”

“Are there sufficient gulleys?”

The City’s Highways Dept has checked out the gulley situation for the County Council, and have confirmed that the gulleys have been jetted out twice and are in good working order. There are sufficient gulleys there for surface water to run off.

So this now brings us to another question.

“If the gulleys are working fine, is there some sort of fracture in the pipe between the gulleys and the sewer?”

The City is currently investigating this for the County Council but it doesn’t look as though this is the case.

So now to the final question:

“Is the underground system so overloaded that surface water floods from the sewer back into the road?”

If that is found to be the case, then Thames Water must be brought in to make an assessment and come up with a plan to increase the capacity.

We are on the case and are ensuring that all parties are communicating effectively with each other. Meanwhile, if YOU have any photos of the Headington Lake, please send them through to us as these will give more clues as to whether the system, rather than the gulleys, is overloaded.