Mill Field Quagmire

Thu 28 Jan 2021, 15:15

A plain sailing answer, Helen 

Thu 28 Jan 2021, 13:18

Quite, Helen!

Tue 26 Jan 2021, 10:33

I might be missing something here, but isn't it possible for dog walkers go somewhere and explore new walks until the flood plain finishes doing what it does very well, which is protecting other, inhabited areas from flooding?

Sun 24 Jan 2021, 21:30

Unfortunately the water's not clean enough for watercress.  But for those in dire need, there's always the option of growing land cress in your garden - just as peppery and you don't usually need wellies on to go and pick some.

Sun 24 Jan 2021, 20:51

Grow Watercress. perfect situation.

Sun 24 Jan 2021, 15:23 (last edited on Sun 24 Jan 2021, 15:30)

Thank you for your detailed responses! We do appear to have rather a lot of time on our hands at the moment! It's why I purposely billed this as a discussion not a slanging match (that's for the Debate board - formerly known as the grease pit!)! Might need a snow plough now! I've not been down there today to investigate though! I'm guessing that is out of the logistical budget too! 

Sat 23 Jan 2021, 18:04

It’s a water meadow 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Sat 23 Jan 2021, 17:24 (last edited on Sat 23 Jan 2021, 17:27)

In essence the Mill Field is part of the flood plain and it is doing precisely what it should do - as explained eloquently by Simon and Phil

Sat 23 Jan 2021, 15:59

As Simon has explained so well, the Mill Field acts as a natural 'soakaway' which offers some protection to all the villages downstream and ultimately Witney and Oxford.

 I think the Environment Agency is currently pretty much occupied with trying to prevent the flooding of people's houses.

The flooding of the Mill Field and the meadows upstream and downstream is a good thing in more ways than one. Apart from protecting other communities, it nourishes the land by bringing rich silt into the grassland (as it has done for centuries).

As we live on a limestone landscape, the water disappears quickly and the grass grows greener!

Sat 23 Jan 2021, 15:30

I can envisage a bit of a logistics problem here.  In order to reduce the water level in the Mill Field to below a mutt's ankles (disregarding owners in wellies right now) two things would be needed.  First of all, stopping the water coming in at the top (metal bridge and weir) end, otherwise we end up with something like the old-style maths problem about taps running into a bath at different rates with the plug-hole part-open. 

Then, assuming that that could be achieved (and since the Mill Field is essentially an island with the river on one side and the Mill Cut on the other, that might be challenging) the size of the tanker fleet required to suck up the surface water and carry it away would probably exceed the number of suitable vehicles currently available for hire throughout the country. 

Another thing to think about is which route the tanker fleet (one 30-ton vehicle every couple of minutes or so) would need to take, since the river bridge itself is closed to HGVs and I guess that the folks who live on Dyers Hill and Thames Street might not welcome the increased traffic with open arms. 

And then we come down to cost.  I would not be surprised if a large tanker would cost at least £100 an hour to hire (plus VAT of course, plus fuel and a driver), and we would need lots of them for quite a while.  So who pays?  Not the environment agency, for sure, as the Mill Field being flooded is an inconvenience, but not a national emergency.  OCC?  WODC?  Charlbury Town Council?  I can't see it somehow, at least not without a hike in our council tax of a size that central government would certainly not permit, if the experience of recent years is anything to go by. 

So that just leaves you and me ............  Anyone got a couple of spare buckets?

Sat 23 Jan 2021, 13:33

Thank you for your reply. Can it not be syphoned into a tanker or something (like they do with sewage) or is that too costly? 

I’m not an expert on these things any more than I claim to be. As Marty McFly said “if you put your mind to it you can an accomplish anything!”

Sat 23 Jan 2021, 10:10

Without wishing to ask the obvious, any suggestions as to where the water might be pumped to?  The Mill Field is a watermeadow, and is doing its job in holding a proportion of the water that comes down the valley until the river itself has regained the capacity to take it away.  The riverside fields on either side of the Cornbury drive bridge do exactly the same, and the water level there has gone down a lot over the last couple of days, so the Mill Field will follow now that the river is back flowing within its banks.

Sat 23 Jan 2021, 09:40 (last edited on Sat 23 Jan 2021, 09:43)

This is not a complaint but a discussion.

As I am sure many of you are aware, the Mill field is an area frequented by many a keen dog Walker or otherwise and owing to heavy rain and flooding and the bursting of the river bank is currently inaccessible without a boat or wet suit!

Is there anything that be done to pump the water away? This seems to happen every year in Oxford and I’m sure it is dealt with by the Environment Agency. 

Can anyone “in the know” shed any light on this. That was one hell of a rainstorm in the week!