Land Drain

[Tigger the Trigger]

On the estate i work on there are a number of large Land drains. On clearing debri found to be blocking them today (1st time in many years.) I found the bars on the gulleys were rusted through and missing. They flow 10 feet along 2 foot pipe which goes to 6 foot diameter vertical pipe 30+ foot deep. We have put weld mess across the entrance as an emergancy temporary (H&S) repair but who is responsible the land owner or enviroment Agency or Water company ?

[Marko]

On the estate i work on there are a number of large Land drains. On clearing debri found to be blocking them today (1st time in many years.) I found the bars on the gulleys were rusted through and missing. They flow 10 feet along 2 foot pipe which goes to 6 foot diameter vertical pipe 30+ foot deep. We have put weld mess across the entrance as an emergancy temporary (H&S) repair but who is responsible the land owner or enviroment Agency or Water company ?

 

Land owner.... unless it is a designated Environment Agency watercourse (If the later the landowner would know). Getting the EA to do anything may be a challenge as their budgets have been slashed but the H&S angle may help prioritise.

[HCR]

Irrespective of where the responsibility ultimately lies (which is probably with the land owner anyway), the land owner has a duty of care to employees, visitors and in some circumstances trespassers. The land owner now has notice of the hazard, so denying liability would be very difficult at least, and probably impossible.