Storm drain being cleared after summer flooding

TEMPORARY traffic lights have been set up in Whitchurch high street while the village’s storm drain is cleared and maintained.

Contractors from Oxfordshire County Council, the highways authority, will be working near the junction with Hardwick Road until the end of next week.

They will replace the drain’s brick lining with a modern pipe that can be cleaned with pressure washing and will prevent leakage into the cellars of nearby properties. The work is being done at the parish council’s request after the drain was overwhelmed by a flash downpour last summer, which resulted in flooding at the Greyhound pub further down the hill.

Lane markings on the same stretch of road will be repainted later in the year, when the weather will be drier, following an accident in which a young cyclist died in November.

Whitchurch and Goring Heath parish councils have asked whether additional warning signs could be installed at the top of the hill.