Hi, This is the first time on this forum and I hope someone can help us out.
We live in a semi rural area. Access to our house is via an unmade gravel road. We have been there 20 years. Council has only assumed maintenance of this road in the past 5 years. However, maintenance has been largely inadequate to nearly non existant. I have been at loggerheads for 4 years, contacting Council to maintain the road because the road becomes flooded. The open drains need to be regularly cleared and they have not been.
In the past 6 months, the gravel road condition has become dangerous with rocks, gravel and water flowing onto another MAIN MADE ROAD.
Councils response after many phone calls was to finally come and clear the drains. However, in the process they said that they found an old pipe beneathe the road, which they cleared. This pipe collects all the concentrated water upstream and diverts it into our land causing flooding.
We brought this to the attention of Council. Their response was that they were maintaining existing infrastructure and that our land would eventually dry up.
The situation is that first of all, we were not aware of this pipe. It is there and they had to dig to find it. That pipe was placed there many years ago when there was only one house in the area. The rest of the land was undeveloped and so the water ran along its natural contours. Now, there are an extra 7 large houses with driveways, 5 swimming pools, large shedding, 4 damsetc. These properties create extra runoff. They collect this runoff and direct it to the open drain along the side of the unmade gravel road. When it rains, this runoff is like a river of water in the drain. What now happens is that this river of water goes into this pipe beneathe the road and flows concentrated onto our property.
What can we do. Council tells us that because our land is low lying, the water would have travelled downstream anyway.
The road was constructed many years ago before our time as a private road by the residents with no planning or engineering permits. The pipe was placed there for the land conditions of the time. The area has become developed and that pipe is now inappropriate causing flooding to us.
What are our options.
Thanks
We live in a semi rural area. Access to our house is via an unmade gravel road. We have been there 20 years. Council has only assumed maintenance of this road in the past 5 years. However, maintenance has been largely inadequate to nearly non existant. I have been at loggerheads for 4 years, contacting Council to maintain the road because the road becomes flooded. The open drains need to be regularly cleared and they have not been.
In the past 6 months, the gravel road condition has become dangerous with rocks, gravel and water flowing onto another MAIN MADE ROAD.
Councils response after many phone calls was to finally come and clear the drains. However, in the process they said that they found an old pipe beneathe the road, which they cleared. This pipe collects all the concentrated water upstream and diverts it into our land causing flooding.
We brought this to the attention of Council. Their response was that they were maintaining existing infrastructure and that our land would eventually dry up.
The situation is that first of all, we were not aware of this pipe. It is there and they had to dig to find it. That pipe was placed there many years ago when there was only one house in the area. The rest of the land was undeveloped and so the water ran along its natural contours. Now, there are an extra 7 large houses with driveways, 5 swimming pools, large shedding, 4 damsetc. These properties create extra runoff. They collect this runoff and direct it to the open drain along the side of the unmade gravel road. When it rains, this runoff is like a river of water in the drain. What now happens is that this river of water goes into this pipe beneathe the road and flows concentrated onto our property.
What can we do. Council tells us that because our land is low lying, the water would have travelled downstream anyway.
The road was constructed many years ago before our time as a private road by the residents with no planning or engineering permits. The pipe was placed there for the land conditions of the time. The area has become developed and that pipe is now inappropriate causing flooding to us.
What are our options.
Thanks
