Flooding Update - October 2024
During the winter period 2023/24 many properties within Frating suffered from flooding and were unable to use their toilets and showers.
The flooding during this period, to our knowledge, did not affect internal areas but was confined to external areas such as gardens and garages. For clarification, during the winter period 2020/21 we do know that some flooding to internal dwelling areas did occur.
Over these years Frating Parish Council has been working with the relevant agencies to try and get a resolution to overcome the repeating problems affecting some of our residents. The agencies we are working with are Anglian Water, Essex Flood Management, Essex Highways and The Environment Agency. This shows it is a multiple agency issue and it needs all these organisations to grasp their part of the problem and come up with answers to rectify the problems.
Since August 2024 the Parish Council has been meeting on a monthly basis with the main agencies and other Parishes that are affected so that the problems can be discussed and, hopefully, solutions can be agreed.
It would appear that the problem lies with the Pumping Station in the Bromley Road not moving the volume of sewage and surface water that is being produced within the village.
The agency that is required to deal with sewage is Anglian Water, and they have control over the pumping station. They have checked the scale of sewage going through the pumping station and, by their calculation, the pumps are adequate for dealing with the amount being produced.
Anglian Water is convinced that the problem lies with the amount of surface water entering their infrastructure, which overloads the system and causes it to back up, affecting the use of bathroom facilities.
Surface water is the responsibility of Essex Flood Management and Essex Highways. The removal of surface water is generally via drains and ditches. The drains are an issue for Essex Highways, but ditches and watercourses are the responsibility of Landowners and Residents. For clarification, if a watercourse/ditch is adjacent to your property but outside your boundary, you are responsible in keeping the nearest 50% of the ditch clear of obstruction. As this highlights, there are many situations to overcome in order to fix the total problem.
As a start, earlier this year Essex Flood Management carried out a walkabout with the Parish Council so that we could highlight where the watercourses and ditches are not maintained and are contributing to the problem. Some action was taken with one location and the Landowner has dealt with the blockage on their property.
On the 3rd October 2024 Anglian Water undertook a walkabout of the village with the Parish Council, so again we could highlight the properties that are suffering each year with flooding and the sewer backing up.
Following on from the meetings and the walkabout, Anglian Water will carry out two surveys to see where surface water is entering the sewer system. This ingress could well be causing the problem with the pumping station not being able to cope. It may be the case they will need to upgrade the pumps within the pumping station.
Anglian Water is hoping to negotiate an agreement from the sewage processing plant so that the amount of sewage pumped from Frating can be increased. Hopefully this will help in the short term.
As those affected are aware, the problems with the sewer system normally occur during December-March. We are not far away from this period, so we believe we are in for another difficult time over the winter if we have the same amount of rainfall as previous winters. We are told that any long-term solution will take time and money to be put in place.
If you are affected by the sewer backing up, Anglian Water has requested that you please report this directly to them so that each and every occurrence is recorded. This will add weight to our complaints and help gain a resolution. Please also log your problems with the Parish Council so we can keep a record.
REPORT AN ISSUE: ANGLIAN WATER - 03457 145 145
FRATING PARISH COUNCIL - fratingpc [at] hotmail.com
The Parish Council will keep you updated via the noticeboards and online – check Notices on the Frating Parish Council website.