Progress Report (May 2008)

There has been a lot of work undertaken this year beginning with the clearance and seeding of the area around the pond. Regular cutting of the section of the grass at the southern area has kept the wide leaf growth at bay. This along with the recreation of a path at the rear of the pond has made this a far more pleasant area.

Following that West Berks Council cleaned out all the gullies and the rest of the drainage system. There was an immediate impact in that the amount of water lying in the roads near the pond quickly dispersed after any showers. This turned out to be a blessing when the region was hit by the torrential downpour and flooding in July. Yes the pond overflowed and flooded the immediate area but within 45 minutes of the rain ceasing the area was "dry".

West Berks have now completed the clearing and re-profiling of the stream leading from the pond through the Rectory and Football Field. Many thanks must go to the respective landowners.
As part of the drainage management the three blocked drains leading into pond have been repaired and where necessary rerouted to save the trees. A silt trap has been built in the Northern side of the pond. This means that run off from the roads will go via the silt traps so the build up in the pond will be less in future years.
 

The pond continues to be a major issue. As has been mentioned on many occasions the law changed in July 2005 such that it is not possible to deposit waste material anywhere. Now the material needs to be dried and go to a landfill site paying a significant amount of tax. We had agreed with WBC to contribute £10,000 towards them removing a significant amount of the silt. We were successful in obtaining a grant of £5,000 towards this so our total cost would be £5,000. Unfortunately WBC & their contractors significantly under estimated the amount of silt and the contractors have spent all they were contracted to. Because it was under so badly estimated, WBC is not asking us for the £10,000 contribution, so we have the £5,000 sat in our bank to be spent on the pond..

It was hoped that we could obtain an Exemption Licence from the EA to spread the silt on local ground, but unfortunately they advised us late LAST WEEK that the amount of mineral oil in the silt means that it has to be treated as contaminated waste, this will be expensive.
Although we know the pond has been a sump for the roads drainage system, that the oil has highly likely come from the road proving it will be another matter. The principle of Riparian Rights now applies, the old “polluter pays” is less significant.
It is worth noting that the cost of depositing the contaminated soil in a landfill site is currently £250+ per tonne (this does not include extraction or transportation). It is likely there is 1000 tonnes of silt in the pond after WBC had taken the silt under their contract. That does not seem such a bad deal.
 

We are lucky that Ian Wilson, Dominic Peskin & Jon Clatworthy (of the IAH) are teaming together to on a Working Group help the PC with this. There are many things to discuss with many agencies.
If only we could put the clock back to pre July 2005

The following link shows the progress of the silt removal to date
 

 The link below shows the photographs of the pond and stream before and during its clearance. As the removal of the silt from the pond takes place more photographs will be added to the link above.

Photographs courtesy of and copyright of their respective owners.
 

The Working Group undertaking the project, amongst other things consists of:
Sue Samara, John Clarke, Mick Crockford and John Golding