Ten Years of Torment

Dorset Council attempted to save money by reducing their highways drainage maintenance programme but, when this led to my home in Oborne being flooded twice, they claimed it was my fault!

Enormous quantities of mud, gravel and general debris enter the nearby system through gullies and is then washed down to a discharge pipe in a farm ditch where it gathers and causes a blockage. That farm is owned by Dorset Council.

Early last century Council engineers had incorporated my historic c.1750 drainage (originally heading to a mill pond) into theirs when constructing the A.30. The result is that when water is unable to flow from the pipe in the ditch it backs up in the network to its closest escape… a grid beside my back door.

Sir Oliver Letwin MP tried to help me, coming to inspect the situation in person and then telling Dorchester that they should “expedite a solution, accepting responsibility for a problem clearly created by the predecessor council.”

He received a spurious response from Council’s legal head Jonathan Mair which opens with a blatant attempt at self protection by announcing; “I am no sort of drainage expert and so rely on the advice of others.”

He cannot be referring to his highways manager Martin Hill, who had accepted blame and promised me remedial action. Nor his flood risk manager Brian Richards who made it clear that, as riparian owners, council MUST ensure the water course runs free.

JACK – THE – LAD

Mr Mair’s expert adviser was apparently Andrew Martin – no longer working for the Council. He struck me as a bit of a Jack-the-Lad, during a site visit – accompanied by colleagues Paul Thatcher and Roly Skeats – trying to convince me that the farm ditch was owned by the Digby Estate.

Mr Martin may well now deny that incident but he cannot deny the mocking report he then submitted which I discovered among pages revealed through a “Freedom of Information” request. It was either intentionally misleading or genuinely incompetent.

FACT. There are two discharge pipes very near to each other. The one that blocks is along the floor of the ditch. The other, significantly, is high in the bank, serving just one gully which is directly above. ANDREW MARTIN MIXED THE TWO.

This is obvious from his statement “the ditch has never filled to the extent that the highways system that empties into it has been unable to run away”. That is total tosh. The main highways system – with my drainage included – is the other pipe lying in the bed of the ditch.

THIS IS THE SMOKING GUN THAT CONFIRMS DORSET COUNCIL’S GUILT BEYOND A SHADOW OF DOUBT.

Jonathan Mair’s sanctimonious drivel “The Council would not voluntarily (at the expense of all council tax payers) meet the cost of maintaining and repairing what is a private drainage system” is absolute clap-trap.

His absurd assertion that the problem discharge is mine alone, successfully duped Sir Oliver. And it had the same effect on the LGSCO….. a massive result for the Council who now crow loudly at every opportunity, their decision not to investigate.

But the Ombudsman’s original report explains that reasoning. In essence it says Council told them it was “private drainage”. They do not have the power to force a local authority to spend money on such a project. Hence their decision “not to pursue the complaint.”

Three totally independent drainage companies have carried out surveys which agree with me and I am disappointed that the Local Government Ombudsman was not more thorough, taking time to investigate at the ‘scene of the crime’.

Jonathan Mair instructed fellow Council officers to have no contact with me and wrote that the only response they intended to give would be “if legal proceeding were issued against the Council”. He knows exactly what that entails

In effect he forced me to employ a solicitor (Wilsons of Salisbury). They explained that Council was first guilty of “unlawful Interference” and then “nuisance” by failure to maintain.

But I was warned that,while I should win, I could incur around £40,000 plus in unrecoverable legal costs. I have already paid out more than £6,000 from my savings.

SPINELESS

Sir Oliver’s successor Chris Loder MP described this episode as Dorset Council “using financial muscle to bully an individual.” I asked Mr Loder (three times) to witness first hand a conclusive dye test but found his backbone had been removed.

Spotlight’s Natalie Cornah approached the Council on my behalf. She was told by them that the Ombudsman was satisfied with the situation and so she stopped in her tracks. That has been the predictable outcome when others have tried to help.

So the LGSCO, two MPS and 82 County Councillors can be frustrated by a bunch of arrogant bullies. What is the point of elections? There is a common thread linking this with other events in recent news…whenever a group are trusted with total authoritarian power,, they unfailingly choose to abuse it.

I was an enthusiastic Town and District councillor, representing Sherborne, for around twenty years. If I had discovered this level of behind-the-scenes skulduggery I would have resigned immediately, not wishing to have any part of such a set-up.

Oliver Chisholm

For further shocking detail, just click on ARROGANT – BULLYING – LYING at the top of the page.