Swan Lane Update

Cty Cllr. Webb has shared the following update from Worcestershire Highways:

“As I know you are aware, Swan Lane, as a small unclassified rural lane, and in light of the total saturation of the ground surrounding it (with the wettest February on record), has for some considerable time had a large amount of water arriving on it from the surrounding land.

Regarding the temporary repairs, these were only ever meant to be very short term. We had intended to go out and do some full blown structural patches to repair the key sections of the Lane, however, this was not practicable in light of the amount of water still on the lane at the time, thus we completed these temporary repairs to at least fill in the worst potholes, whilst recognising in such saturated wet conditions that they would not last very long.

We have now been in and completed the aforementioned structural patching works which should hold reasonably well. We did visit the lane with a gulley emptier last week, however, some of the gullies in question we believe drain into the surrounding ditches and some of those ditches are overgrown and blocked. Most ditches are the responsibility of the neighbouring landowner ref clearance, so we will endeavour to sort this with them as soon as practicable. There is one section of lane, where a gulley is still surcharging onto the lane. We have attempted to clear this, but there appears to be a break/blockage further on in the pipe, which will require works. In addition during this week will also look at what other issues ref drainage matters exist on this lane & then programme works as necessary. This will hopefully improve the drainage on the lane (alongside the issues with the ditches as aforementioned). However, if the total ground saturation conditions did return due to more poor weather (let’s hope not), then it would be likely that water may well run off the fields onto and down the lane.”