For many years now, a number of village residents have been tackling small projects to
help alleviate flood risks at key locations across West Hagbourne, normally when an
urgent need arises. To address these issues on a more proactive and ongoing basis, we
formed the West Hagbourne Flood Group in November 2024.
The group now consists of 15 or so villagers and meets on a regular basis, clearing drains
and trash screens along water courses, as well as maintaining and digging out ditches, to
ensure smooth water flow through our village. We hope the effect of this ongoing work can
now be clearly seen across West Hagbourne, with less water on our roads and fewer
instances of unkept and overflowing ditches.
Our work is supported by regular communication with representatives at both OCC and
SODC, who are able to provide advice or directly tackle some of the larger and more
specialised activities that we are not able to address ourselves.
West Hagbourne Parish Council support has further enabled the Flood Group by funding
the purchases of a variety of tools to carry out this work more efficiently, as well as flood
pumps and a small stock of sandbags, for use by villagers in emergencies.
If you’d like to join us on the West Hagbourne Flood Group please get in touch, we
meet at the village Phone Box/Defibrillator on Sundays, at 10.30 am. Everyone is
welcome, young and old, and we normally finish our activities with a chat over a cup of tea
and a piece of cake!
For Flood-related help or to join our Flood Group, contact Robin Wilkes on the village
WhatsApp group.
Contact: Robin Wilkes
