Neighbour has redirected overflow of their lake into our field

[Formatted]

Discovered this morning the parish council's contractor has opened a drain into our field. I was alerted to it whilst checking the cattle this morning when I almost became bogged in a once dry part of the field. As we are cutting silage this week I am mightly miffed. I've spoken to the clerk who has promised to rectify it but what are my rights if they come back and change their mind? I should add we are tenants and the agent has asked us to initially take the lead in sorting it out.

 

[D14]

Discovered this morning the parish council's contractor has opened a drain into our field. I was alerted to it whilst checking the cattle this morning when I almost became bogged in a once dry part of the field. As we are cutting silage this week I am mightly miffed. I've spoken to the clerk who has promised to rectify it but what are my rights if they come back and change their mind? I should add we are tenants and the agent has asked us to initially take the lead in sorting it out.

Had the same thing happen here but no the parish council and we own the land. I asked him to remove it which he initially said he would but after months hadn't so our solicitor sent him a letter saying we would be removing it and charging him for doing it. He has never paid that £500 bill but his water is no longer connected to our field drain and he won't do it again because he knows what will happen. So his pond water now runs through his property out onto a lane that is used for access when it overflows. He is not popular with the other users of the lane.

 

[No wot]

Fill it back in sharpish & and bill him £1000 for damage to your field and your time filling it back up

 

[Bongodog]

Where should their water be draining to as they seem to have rather a lot of it. Looks like they took the easy way of getting rid, give the Parish Council hell, as a public body its far easier than dealing with an individual. If they don't rectify the issue very quickly, exercise your right to go along to their meeting and state your grievance, you can also drop a FOI on them and demand to see why they did what they have done.

 

[br jones]

fill it in ,an uncontolled release of water with god knows what in it ,get the ea on to them ,vankers

 

[Andrew K]

Surely this is an offence,punishable in a court of law?

 

[matthew]

As said, fill that channel in (picture 3) and sharpish. At least that will stop the flow and give your crops a chance to drain. Bloody cheek. Where does the so-called overflow from this pond usually go? The parish clerk's / councillor's back garden??
What is your 'agent' doing while this mess is flooding your crops? Another one who wants a sharp pointy stick where the sun don't shine. imho of course.

 

[Rodgerdodger]

You can't by law alter a water course or drain or land levels to flow water on to another another persons land but if this is what has always happened sobeit.

 

[T7.wab]

Man below takes man aboves water?

 

[puppet]

It must have gone somewhere before so just block it up again. 5 minutes with a spade

 

[Wellytrack]

Ridiculous, the fupping cheek of them.

They could have approached you or your landlord for drainage through your field paid for at their cost at the very least, and at a time of year when minimal disruption or a reseed was being carried out.

I notice you don’t have much of a brew behind the fence. That could be built up too..

 

[matthew]

You can't by law alter a water course or drain or land levels to flow water on to another another persons land but if this is what has always happened sobeit.

From the pics, that trench is newly cut, and created for a purpose. The field has been dry until then, the OP confirms. That purpose has severely inconvenienced you. Block it and argue the toss later.

 

[Formatted]

Cheers all, is there any yard stick in which to measure crop damage? I wouldn't mind just sending them a letter outlining the potential charges if they don't fix it permanently. I will pop down with a spade later and fill it in if they haven't already.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

I think
1. bucket load of soil, fill in trench up to your boundary
2. get an agent/solicitor to send a warning letter
3. claim damages
in that order

 

[Wellytrack]

Cheers all, is there any yard stick in which to measure crop damage? I wouldn't mind just sending them a letter outlining the potential charges if they don't fix it permanently. I will pop down with a spade later and fill it in if they haven't already.

It's your crop and because of conditions you won't get it harvested in the time frame you want. As such it is losing feed value once it starts to go to stem - how do you value this? Point is, it's your claim of loss not theirs to argue with.

 

[Wombat]

Man below takes man aboves water?

Only applies to natural flow, not flow that has been altered in anyway

 

[Devil's advocate]

Man below takes man aboves water?

I thought that was the case, rightly or wrongly.

I've wet spots I could easily drain onto neighbours & don't. Only into ditches.

Gets difficult when you can see a ditch but it is 50 metres across neighbours land.

 

[matthew]

Cheers all, is there any yard stick in which to measure crop damage? I wouldn't mind just sending them a letter outlining the potential charges if they don't fix it permanently. I will pop down with a spade later and fill it in if they haven't already.

You mean it's been draining into your silage crop all yesterday and all last night, after you found the newly created drainage channel / crop damage and posted pics @ 10.30 am on Monday??

 

[Rodgerdodger]

I have just heard that our ings has flooded at the weekend due to EA not maintaining a flood bank which they have been made aware of. No hay crop this year most likely!

 

[glasshouse]

This brings to mind some new forestry ditches my landlord had dug.
They gathered water off new plantings and diverted it over my arable field.