Drainage ditches and streams need clearing (From Witney Gazette)

Drainage ditches and streams need clearing

10:00am Wednesday 23rd January 2013 in Letters

Sir – When I was growing up in Eynsham Road, at the foot of Cumnor Hill, a retired farm labourer lived in a shed in the wood we boys liked to visit.

When the lower fields of the farm flooded one winter, the farmer fetched him in his pick-up. He was the only one who could remember where all the ditches and watercourses were supposed to be.

Under his direction, the farm workers reinstated them, and within a day all the floodwater had gone.

On my recent perambulations in and around Eynsham, I have been shocked to see how many streams and ditches are choked with mud and leaves, not to mention the roots and branches of uncut hedges.

I don’t pretend it is the answer to West Oxfordshire’s flooding problems, but I can’t help feeling a little basic husbandry would help.

Don Chapman, Newland Street, Eynsham