Drainage problem resolved...now I'm irritated!!

Kashkai

To Smashey & Mellor, I have discussed this situation with Muffler and he has given me the go ahead to explain how the problem was resolved.

Further to my earlier thread regarding my neighbours threatening legal action (which caused the thread to be locked - after Muffler explained why, I had no argument with his decision) after accusing myself and my next door neighbour of interfering with the local drainage arrangements and thus causing the resultant flooding, I just want to provide an update on how this problem was resolved.

I received a knock on the door from the guy across the road last Saturday who was pretty annoyed that his garden was swamped. I had sympathy with him up to the point where he stated that my pipes were blocked and I was causing the ditch upstream to back up and overflow. Now this annoyed me greatly as unless he had x-ray vision, there's no way for sure that he could see where the blockage was but this didn't stop him openly accusing me and then he threatened that he had called the Council, given them my name and my next door neighbours and informed them that we were the cause of all the recent flooding because we had piped and then filled in the 10 foot wide and 5 foot deep ditche that had been there. He finished by saying that we would have to foot the bill for the inspection and clearing of the pipes.

My next door neighbour had it even worse as not only was she flooded (I'm on a hill so I escaped the grief everyone else experienced), but she bore even more fury from not only him but neighbours up the road and they all threatened legal action against her.

Now for the good bit...............
The Council did come out to inspect the flooding but they did so at my request as I spent 8 years working on the design and construction of water, wastewater and DRAINAGE schemes (so I knew how to lay pipes in my ditch that would be sufficient to carry the streams flows) including working with employees of Kildare County Council who I know well. After explaining the situation to them, I requested that they inspect the pipe at the point where it takes the flows from the open ditch in the farmer's field and then leads under a road and into my neighbour's pipes and on into mine. And guess what they found..... debris from the field e.g. hay, baling twine, plastic from hay bales, branches off hedges and trees and a plastic drum that had held water for his cattle had lodged at the entrance to the pipe and thus caused the ditch to back up and overflow. When the lads from teh Council cleared this, the water immediately flew through the pipe and the flooding was gone in minutes. To make sure, a cctv probe was sent down into my neighbours, my own and my other neighbour's pipes and they were completely clear. The farmer arrived then and when confronted with this, he just shrugged his shoulders and said he wasn't responsible for what enters the ditch and he wouldn't be paying for the Council's time clearing the blockage (he caused a similar blockage last year, my neighbour and I also got the blame for this too).

When I arrived home last night after getting a verbal report from the Council, I was hell bent on hammering on my accuser's door to demand an apology. After all I believe his accusations last Saturday were nothing short of slander and God knows whats been said behind our backs between him and the other established locals. However my wife, who has the cool head in our relationship, said I should wait until my temper was under control and then leave it for a few days to see if we will get an apology. If not, then we could mention it to the smug git across the road. I did inform my fellow accused neighbour of the Council's findings and she is going to seek a written report from the Council and send this to all those who had vented their spleen at her for causing the flooding.

So in the last 2 years, we have been accused of causing local flooding when on the two occasions, it has been the fault of a local farmer. And on the 2 occasions where we have been found not to be at fault, we have not received an apology from the locals. This is the really annoying part - these gits hate the fact that my neighbour and I piped and filled in our ditches as not only were they an eyesore, but we both have young kids who, if they fell into these ditches, would not be able to climb out and might be swept away into undergound pipes and drowned. And the fact that the local gits have piped and filled in their own ditches doesn't come into it, after all they grew up there and own the place.

Right thats my spleen vented for now - until I see the gobsh!te across the road that is. Have a nice day everone.

p38dse

It seems to me that blaming the owner of the agricultural (undeveloped) land beside your "developments" is well, ridiculous after all it is your, and your neighbours "developments" that have caused the original ditches and drains to be filled in and piped, and there-fore caused the flooding. Typical ribbon develoment residents blaming the easy target.:cool:

sydthebeat

p38dse wrote: »

It seems to me that blaming the owner of the agricultural (undeveloped) land beside your "developments" is well, ridiculous after all it is your, and your neighbours "developments" that have caused the original ditches and drains to be filled in and piped, and there-fore caused the flooding. Typical ribbon develoment residents blaming the easy target.:cool:

did you not read the the original post? :eek::eek:

it was proven that the owner of the agricultural land was responsible for the flooding.... simple as, full stop, case closed.

you post makes no sense!

bauderline

Really ?!

So the flood wasn't caused by the farmers non environmentally friendly approach to recycling then was it ?

But of course farmers can do no wrong.... can they..... apart from the small matter of nitrates....

http://www.environ.ie/en/Environment/Water/WaterQuality/NitratesDirective/

Quazzie

sydthebeat wrote: »

did you not read the the original post? :eek::eek:

it was proven that the owner of the agricultural land was responsible for the flooding.... simple as, full stop, case closed.

you post makes no sense!

I think he was trying to be funny with the OP. Not a very good attempt but he did try.

Failing that the guy is blind.!

muffler

p38dse wrote: »

It seems to me that blaming the owner of the agricultural (undeveloped) land beside your "developments" is well, ridiculous after all it is your, and your neighbours "developments" that have caused the original ditches and drains to be filled in and piped, and there-fore caused the flooding. Typical ribbon develoment residents blaming the easy target.:cool:

Trolling will get you nowhere apart from a one way ticket out of here.

smashey

That farmer is some wanker.

muffler

smashey wrote: »

That farmer is some wa**er.

Why would the swear filter activate itself for the word waster?

muffler

Just to explain for the benefit of anyone else who missed the original part of the story. Prosperous Dave outlined the circumstances of the flooding in this thread. Unfortunately it had to be locked but we agreed that he be allowed to post up details of the resolution or outcome of the problem.

Im not sure if there is much to debate as such but still its nice of Dave to keep us updated.

Quazzie

I hope he keeps us updated on how he got with the neighbour.. Jeez this is like an episode of Emmerdale.

RKQ

Well done Prosperous Dave!
Enjoyed that, as its nice to see how easy it was to resolve it.
Nice clear cut case... hope your neighbour is man enough to apologise.

I'd keep a council report in the hall, just in case he calls during the next flood! Say nothing just hand it to him...

Wasn't it an awful pity, those flooded, didn't find the blockage and remove it. Pity they just sat in it blaming rather than sorting out the problem...

Quazzie

He might've been right about prosperous dave causing the flooding. for all we know dave could be a ritual rain dancer. :P

smashey

muffler wrote: »

Why would the swear filter activate itself for the word waster?

I was being polite but I've just fixed it. :pac:

De_man

muffler wrote: »

Im not sure if there is much to debate as such but still its nice of Dave to keep us updated.

i must agree with muffler, the episode is over, the cause has
now been determined and resolved

Dave, imho it's not worth it, life is too short to be fighting with the neighbours

your neighbours now have an explaination, you don't have to be friends with the neighbour but i'd still try and sort it out and bury the hatchet

these things have a nasty habit of gathering momemtum
:rolleyes:

Kashkai

Just to answer a few points made:-

Like I said in my original thread, when I first saw the overflow while driving home last Saturday morning, I did go out in the wellies with a shovel and rake to clear the blockage where I assumed (through experience of laying pipes) it would be, i.e. at the point where the ditch alongside the farmer's field enters the pipe that goes under a road and joins up with my neighbour's pipework and my own. But the established locals didn't want to know and put the blame full square at my and my fellow blow ins door for laying our own pipes. As they wouldn't help me, I wasn't going to toll for hours in thigh deep water to clear the blockage (which as it turned out was exactly where I knew it would be, despite their claims). It was that afternoon when they came a knocking to formally lay the blame at my door and to make their threats that I called the guy in the Council that I knew and asked him to check it out.

And it was the Council's men who laid the blame at the farmers door for the blockage. The farmer even admitted it in a fashion by telling them that he wasn't responsible for what washed from his field into the ditch. His arrogance at walking away from a problem that he was responsible for (for the past 2 years) is astounding.

Once again, the reason I piped the ditch was for safety reasons. I've 4 kids, 3 of them under 3 years of age and if they fell into this ditch they wouldn't get out and could be swept away into underground pipes and drown.

Finally, I do accept that its better to get on with the neighbours but why should I sit back, and get threatened every time there's a flood and do nothing about it? Oh and the establishment have not been forthcoming with an apology despite them hovering around the Council's guys when they were investigating the blockage. They were probably sickened when they were told that we were not responsible. My contact in the Council said they drifted away when the blockage was cleared muttering to themselves.

Finally, finally, thanks to Muffler for letting me air my grievance. Letting me blow off steam on Boards has probably saved my smug neighbour from getting a pop on the nose from yours truly.

Poor Uncle Tom

Dave, I believe you have explained it perfectly and, as of Today, alls well that ends well. You are not to blame, nature conspired to wash the farmers materials into the ditch, to block it, and ultimately flood a lot of gardens. The council came, unblocked the ditch and saved the day.

What measures have been or are being taken to stop this happening tomorrow, next week, next year, next downpour?

Kashkai

Poor Uncle Tom wrote: »

Dave, I believe you have explained it perfectly and, as of Today, alls well that ends well. You are not to blame, nature conspired to wash the farmers materials into the ditch, to block it, and ultimately flood a lot of gardens. The council came, unblocked the ditch and saved the day.

What measures have been or are being taken to stop this happening tomorrow, next week, next year, next downpour?

Well Tom, from my previous experience with laying pipes, especially where one end of the pipe will be open to accept flows from an open ditch, the usual prevention for keeping all types of rubbish out of a pipe and thus prevent blockages is to place a grate over the entrance to the pipe. This 'grate' could be fashioned by my neighbours and I from some steel re-inforcement mesh (the type used to strengthen foundations) which could be cut using an axel grinder to fit the opening of the pipe. This could then be held in place by some metal rebars hammered into the foot of the ditch. This would prevent branches, hedge clippings, plastic and barrels (i.e. the stuff that was found to be blocking the pipe) from getting inside the opening of the pipe. This could then be routinely inspected and rubbish removed quite easily before the ditch starts backing up, because once the stuff gets into the pipe and blocks the flows, it then entails either someone standing chest/neck deep in water trying to pull the stuff out of the pipe against the flow of a huge volume of water (very dangerous situation) or else getting in machinery to scoop out the rubbish (which could cause damage to the pipes).

However I'm in a bit of a 'thick' mode at the moment with the neighbours as they still haven't turned up with an apology for once again falsely accusing me of causing the flooding. So I'm not in any hurry to offer my advice on how to prevent further blockages and thus save them from getting swamped (I'm on a hill so the flooding didn't and won't affect me). Yeah I know I should be bigger than all that (and if the situation had been reversed, I would have immediately apologised - not that I would have been so quick to accuse someone in the first place without being totally sure of the cause of the blockage mind) but I'm getting pretty sick of these locals pointing the finger at us for their woes. My fellow blow ins next door are even madder than us and the lady next door was so frustrated with the unfair accusations that she spent an hour and a half crying on my wife's shoulder last Tuesday. Her husband is torn between legal action for slander or inflicting gbh on the locals. As for me, well Saturday morning is "cut the grass" time in our area and is the usual time I see the smug git across the road. So if he hasn't been man enough to come and apologise by tomorrow morning, then I'll have a few words with him to put him straight and make him think twice about throwing baseless accusations at me in the future.

Poor Uncle Tom

You've got it covered. I hope ye all can come together to do the works. You are not at fault, you know who is, you are loaded and ready to fire, (word of advice, please take a step back, you'll be the bigger man for it).
You said you have young kids, they must grow up there too.

Good Luck. Bud.

muffler

Sorry lads but any further debate on the matter is going to be in relation to the personalities involved and the attitudes adopted by the various parties which really doesn't fall into the remit of this forum.

Just like the "bob the builder" story Dave has kept us duly informed of updates but this matter has now run its course and I think the best thing to do is to lock this for now.