February 3rd, 2013 |
The Watery Lane Flood
The Hullbridge Greens have a fine gallery of photos on their website today showing the flooding in Watery Lane.
These pictures were taken today, Sunday 3 February, and show how deep the water is in Watery Lane. The road is not passable by car and Essex Fire Service have said the following in response to their rescue of 5 motorists last night.
Firefighters had to rescue five adults from three vehicles after motorists ignored flood water and drove through getting themselves stranded.
ECFRS’ swift water rescue team helped the occupants to dry land before leaving the scene at 19:24 hrs.
Crews continue to stress the dangers of driving into flood water but these, and warning signs at the scene, continued to be ignored at this notorious flood blackspot.
The County Council say they will repair the collapsed drainage culvert in the summer….
Ron Oatham
Trevor Parrett
Bruce Smart
Chris Stanley
Pam Waldie
Elena Black
Rochford District Council carries out grass cutting on behalf of the County Council.
If you see a grass verge that badly needs cutting, you can report it
This is the official master document for planning policy in our district! To download it, click here
February 3rd, 2013 at 09:02
The District Council are planning to build hundreds of houses above here.
Compare this difficult site with Priory Chase. The latter couldn’t have been much easier – a piece of flat ground owned by the County Council. And yet we still have problems to sort out years later..
Why am I not filled with confidence that things will go smoothly at Watery Lane?
February 4th, 2013 at 01:02
How can the Council feel it is reasonable to leave this situation until summer to repair. I appreciate it might be difficult and unpleasant for workmen to do it in winter, but this flooding has been going on for so long now they really should be looking at doing something on an urgent basis. Makes the building of houses even more ridiculous. Perhaps they are planning on making the developers offer an inflatable dinghy with every home!
February 4th, 2013 at 09:02
Why is the repair not planned until the summer?
February 4th, 2013 at 05:02
To prove that some things never change, this is taken from the Session Rolls dated 1610…..makes for interesting reading.
Presentments of Hundreds of Chelmsford, Rochford and Dengie.
First we present John Greene of Rawreth for not laying out of a way through lady land being an usual way from Battlesbridge to Rochford, and hath been presented twice before; the parish of Leigh for not amending their highway from Leigh to Hadleigh; Haybridge lying between Ingatestone and Mountnessing, who should mend it we know not, Widow Tomalyn of Ingatestone for victualling Without license; Edmund Tomalyn of Chelmsford fo not mending his ditch in the roadway between Chelmsford and Widford: George Perrie of Broomfield for victualling without license, and from time to time keeping evil rule in his house Robert Coodge of springfield for getting of a house or office against the highway, to the great annoyance of the king’s people that passeth by the same, and for turning of a water course out of his house into the highway to the great annoyance of the same; Thomas Rowe of Springfield for victualling without license and suffering evilrule to be kent in his house the second day of September last past 1610; John Lane of Springfield for victualling wihout; license; John Cosens of Great altham for not scouring his ditch against his land called Parkers and the highway leading from Black Chapel to Braintree against Apafield park gate; knightbridgelying between Sandon and Danbury, and who should mend it we know not; the wife of richard Slygne of Creat Baddow gent., for a recusant, for that she hath not come to her church this two years.
February 4th, 2013 at 06:02
From what we were told at the Highways panel last week, County Highways can’t /won’t do it until we get some dry weather and the flood waters drain away naturally so the culvert can be accessed.
The word ‘pump’ doesn’t appear to be in their dictionary…..
It’s just possible that the noise we made about it at the panel meeting will persuade County Highways to do something sooner.
PS RR that’s really interesting, thank you. Do you have a link, or did you type that in from a paper document?
February 4th, 2013 at 07:02
This being the UK, of course, there is no guarantee of dry weather – even in the summer! So it must be really difficult to plan maintenance work like this.
I don’t know exactly where the culvert is that’s collapsed, but I can see that the people of Hullbridge and Rayleigh may get a raw deal in the summer with the possibility of Watery Lane being closed again for the work to take place.
February 4th, 2013 at 07:02
Since just before Christmas, I have pulled out no fewer than 20 cars and vans from the flooded roads with my modified Land Rover Discovery. We know what our vehicles can do, as we are all trained for deep water driving, in excess of 4 feet. The vehicles we use still operate in 5 feet of water, and in the harshest of weather conditions.
I even have a sign on the rear window ‘Don’t follow me, you’ll drown!’, yet people still try it!
The water is only 18 inches deep now, but even a standard Land Rover won’t be any use over 20 inches water depth. A car doesn’t stand a chance.
February 7th, 2013 at 06:02
I heard on the radio today that Watery Lane is going to closed indefinitely until the repair is complete in the summer. If this is for safety – then that’s a good thing. It might be a small road on the map, but as the report says (http://onlinefocus.org/?p=11690) there is a significant increase in traffic in Rawreth Lane when Watery Lane is closed. Please ECC, give to a thought for those people using these routes who are suffering significant congestion and delays.