Ditch Clearing ~ how do you do yours?

[SteveA]

When clearing our ditches we use a 3 tonne excavator and leave the spoil to drain for a year and then sieve before spreading. Only allowed to do 1 bank per year and don't forget you need EA exemptions for the operation.

 

First I've heard about Evironment Agency Exemption.... what's the deal with that? .... our ditches aren't filled with 'waste'; just really good/ useful/ natural woodland humus. Does this exemption certificate bureaucracy apply to every person with a ditch to clear?

[dave346]

Not sure on the size of your ditches but this is what my dad got for opening up old drainage tracks on his machair

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YuS2vU0uRg]WP 20120825 182140Z - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w81WJK7sCVg]WP 20120825 182102Z 2 - YouTube[/ame]

[renewablejohn]

First I've heard about Evironment Agency Exemption.... what's the deal with that? .... our ditches aren't filled with 'waste'; just really good/ useful/ natural woodland humus. Does this exemption certificate bureaucracy apply to every person with a ditch to clear?

 

Your ditch may not be filled with waste but try telling that to EA. You can apply online for you free farm exemptions the one for spreading ditch spoil is U10 but be careful where you spread it as your not allowed to go carting it around the farm. Also restrictions on how much you can spread per hectare and a total stockpile of only 1250 tonnes. On some of the ditches I maintain I can easily extract 1 tonne per mtr so 1250 tonnes is very easy to exceed.