Land Drainage

Contact the Land Drainage Team
Land Drainage Bye Laws
Guidance for Riparian Owners
Policy Statement
Guidance Leaflets

Flood Alleviation Schemes

The main responsibility of the Council's Land Drainage section is to limit and control damage from flooding by making sure the district’s surface water and land drainage systems perform satisfactorily.

Overall management of our “river catchments” is split between:

• The Environment Agency ­is responsible for managing ‘main river channels’ (primary river channels, designated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food).
• The Council ­we manage all other watercourses, ditches and drainage channels.
• Thames Water Utilities Limited is responsible for most storm sewer networks (mainly in towns) and property owners can be responsible for others.

We manage the watercourses in two ways:

1. Routine control and maintenance activities, including use of our legal powers and responsibilities.
2. Strategic drainage activities, which are often project-based.

Under the district’s bye-laws, routine maintenance and upkeep of watercourses is the responsibility of riparian owners.

For some Epping Forest district channels, this means us.

To maintain our watercourses, we use a contractor to clear, dredge and look after the banks in important areas.

The Council’s Direct Services Organisation routinely clears storm drainage grilles, which protect piped watercourses or pipes under roads, to make sure they do not get blocked and cause flooding.

The Environment Agency manages and polices the main rivers, also undertaking its own clearance and maintenance activities

These activities include carrying out specific projects to protect areas that are particularly prone to flooding.

Recent projects include the North Weald and Thornhill flood alleviation schemes; and, working with the Environment Agency, the Loughton Brook and Thornwood schemes. We are now monitoring and maintaining these schemes on a regular basis to ensure their continuing effectiveness.

Other land drainage projects include correcting bank erosion problems. As the riparian owner, we must make sure our land and adjoining highways and footways are secure.

The district’s land drainage bye-laws say that we must give our formal agreement to any new development or re-development on, over, adjoining or connecting to a watercourse. Most ‘land drainage consent’ applications are identified during the planning or building control stages. This control is important, as uncontrolled development can cause flooding by generating large volumes of extra water, or blocking or constricting existing watercourses.

New Government guidance will mean more developments become influenced by the need for source control of rainfall run-off; for example, this means using materials that allow rain to soak in.

Anyone who owns a property on a waterside must have our agreement to carry out works within eight metres of the watercourse. If we have not agreed, and the works affect the satisfactory operation of the drainage system, we can take legal action for the owner to remove the works.

Emergency Response

We offer an emergency supply of sandbags if there is an unexpected and serious threat of flooding. Sandbags can be sent to sites where the current levels of protection are likely to fail, resulting in flood damage to buildings or their contents.

Please note, this is a voluntary service ­ we cannot guarantee to place sandbags at all the sites that might need them, it is the residents or owners responsibility to protect themselves.