Drainage problems and irritated neighbours

Kashkai

To give you the background, I live near the foot of a country road that slopes down from Prosperous to the Grand Canal. There are fields on either side of the road that also slope towards the road, in effect creating a funnel. My house, while at the bottom of the funnel, is on a raised piece of ground well above the water table which I made sure of before I bought it (the design and planning of drainage schemes used to be my job and so I know how to avoid potential flood plains). When we bought the site a few years ago, there was a large ditch at the foot of the garden adjacent to the road which drained surface water from the village of Prosperous all the way (1 and 1/2 miles down past houses and fields, past my house and away to Sallins direction). This ditch, which had almost sheer sides (you needed a ladder to climb into and out of it when trimming weeds) was 10 feet wide and five feet deep and in the summer the water level would be between 18 and 24 inches deep. In the winter this could increase to 3ft (as there was a 3ft wide pipe under the driveway into the house so I knew how deep the water was). Now practically all but one of the house heading up to Prosperous have culverted this ditch, i.e. laid pipes and covered with a lawn for aesthetic and safety reasons. Now we did the same, i.e. laid 3ft wide pipes along the ditch as we have 4 young kids and I didn't fancy the thought of them slipping into this ditch and being carried away into the neighbours pipes which are under his lawn for 100 metres (see girl in the UK who fell into a sewer and was carried away underground to a river nearby - her father managed to save her thank God).

Now we put the pipes down in 1996, my next door neighbour (also a recent blow in to the area) put their pipes down last year and there were no problems until the past month, when due to the heavy rain, the ditch upstream of my house overflowed onto the road and swamped neighbours gardens. Now while I was sorry for them and offered to help (which they refused), the locals blamed my neighbour and I for putting down our own pipes as they stated "we never had flooding like this before you filled in your ditch". Now it was the wettest August in 160 years I think and there were floods all over the country and I disputed that it was my pipes that were the cause of the flooding. I pointed out as nice as I could that I was not going to leave a dangerous watercourse uncovered for one of my kids to fall into and drown similar to why they had all filled in their own ditches with pipes.

Now last weekend, the ditch backed up and overflowed onto the road despite it being pretty dry. The neighbours were out in force now stating that my pipes were blocked and that they had alerted the Council and that I would have to bear the cost of clearing the pipes. Now the first point I'd raise is that how do they know its my pipes that are blocked as I have neighbours either side with filled in ditches? Secondly, if there is a blockage, wouldn't it be logical to think that it is near the mouth of the pipes where the ditch goes under a road and joins my neighbours pipes or did the blockage manage to travel 100 metres until it came to my pipes and decided to lodge itself?

My next door neighbour and I are pretty sick of the established locals bitching in our faces constantly about this flooding. I am sorry that they have swamped gardens but I am not responsible for the heavy rainfall, nor am I sorry for covering in a dangerous ditch which each one of them also did. However its the threat of legal action/having to pay to clear blocked pipes (if it is my pipework) that's really annoying me. I am not responsible for whatever flows down in the ditch from upstream. I suggested a year ago after a smaller bout of flooding caused by a farmer blocking the mouth of the pipe with hay that we lay a grid over the mouth of the pipe (that collects the flows from upstream and funnels it under my neighbours property, under mine and off to my other neighbor), in order to prevent large branches, hay, large drums (all the farmers field) or even a child from entering the pipework but they weren't interested.

So where do I stand? Do I keep on turning the other cheek in order to protect the peace as my wife wants or will I tell them to sod off which is what I want to do. With the weather forecast for the coming week, its only going to get worse

Quazzie

Drainage problems and irrigated neighbours

Fixed that for ya!

sydthebeat

what size pipes are installed?? and is the same size installed all the way down to the outfall??

is the outfall clear? at time of flooding is there still visible flow at the outfall... or does the flooding start from the outfall then travel upstream? (ie theres two type of causes for flooding.. either pipes being blockedand not being able to take the loading, or the pipes being fine but the outfall is below waterlevel etc...)

muffler

You are in a legal situation so that rules out any discussion on the matter. A solicitor is your best bet.

Thread locked.

muffler

I realise the OP went to great lengths to outline his case (and well done too) and in a way its a pity that we cant allow discussion on the matter but if anyone wishes to comment perhaps they would help Dave out by sending a PM.

Cheers.