Riparian Awareness Campaign 2024

Overview

As the Local Highways Authority, Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) receives a high number of enquiries over autumn and winter months relating to flooding of the highway. Much of our highways network is reliant upon roadside ditches and Ordinary Watercourses being maintained effectively.

WBC is not responsible for the maintenance of most of the highway ditches within the borough. 

Responsibility for watercourses/ditches including roadside ditches rests with the riparian owners. A riparian owner is a property or landowner with watercourses crossing or bordering their land. Where a watercourse is between property boundaries, each owner is jointly responsible.

Riparian ownership

To check if you are a riparian owner, please use our online map and enter your post code. This will identify any watercourses/culverted watercourses within or next to your property. The map shows that some ditches and watercourses are classed as Main Rivers. Your responsibility as a riparian owner does not change for a Main River. Main Rivers are classified and mapped separately because they are regulated by the Environment Agency rather than by the Council.

The image below shows whether you have responsibility as a riparian owner for a ditch or other watercourse in or close to your property.

As the above image shows, the responsibility to maintain flow in watercourses/ditches includes ensuring that where a ditch is piped. For example, under a driveway/access to a property, the owner of that access is responsible for maintaining the pipe or culvert.

If you are in any doubt regarding your responsibilities as riparian owner you can contact Flooding@wokingham.gov.uk and give a telephone number and address by which you can be contacted and a member of the Flood Risk and Drainage Team will contact you to help.

How to maintain a ditch/watercourse

• Check it on a regular basis to make sure that it isn’t being blocked, for example, by debris in pipes under the driveway or accumulation of rubbish in the ditch. If the level of water in a ditch/watercourse is rising it may mean there is a blockage downstream, particularly if that level does not go down within a few hours of a rainstorm finishing.
• Remove leaves/branches or other rubbish/debris on a regular basis to make sure the flow of water is not blocked.
• As a riparian owner, your responsibility extends to cutting back growth of vegetation/trees on the banks and in the bed of a watercourse and removing the build-up of debris.
• If it is something that you cannot deal with, please contact General Enquiries and they will be able to advise you where to get help.

Other riparian owners causing issues

Please report the matter to Flooding@wokingham.gov.uk with your contact details and the Council, as the Lead Local Flood Authority, will investigate the matter. If appropriate, will exercise its powers under section 25 of the Land Drainage Act to serve notice to the riparian owner who is not complying with the law.  Under these powers, the Council has the power to undertake works and recover costs from the riparian owner concerned.