PARISH COUNCIL NEWS FROM THE JANUARY 2025 MEETING
Litter Warden – The parish council has kindly been offered the services of a litter warden by Milton Keynes City Council who has the power to issue fixed penalty notices to anyone who drops litter or lets their dog foul without picking it up.
Update from Thames Valley Police – Crime statistics between 10/12/24 and 5/11/25 were as follows: criminal damage to a vehicle left unattended x 1. Other incidents not crime related: road related incident – vehicles potentially racing on the A509 x 1.
Anglian Water pumping station at Harvey Drive – Following the flooding in Olney Road at the end of September, the parish council wrote to the CEO of Anglian Water requesting that that Anglian Water Services shared its maintenance programme and long-term plans for the pumping station with the parish council and residents given the issues that were encountered during recent flood events. The parish council pointed out that the capacity of the pumping station was totally inadequate to deal with the heavy rain fall gushing through the storm drains, leading to localised flooding of gardens in Harvey Drive and Olney Road and a property flooded in Olney Road.
A response to the above letter was received from Anglian Water as follows:
"Unfortunately, due to the amount of rainfall and high river levels in the area in September and November, our sewers and the pumping station became overloaded. Whilst our sewer pipes are designed to be self-cleansing and to take a large volume of flow, several times in excess of normal weather flows, from time-to-time sewers will overflow as a result of exceptional weather as in this case.
Our team has confirmed that Emberton pumping station is in full working order. Whilst there are no long-term plans for capital investment, the station is fitted with a telemetry system to alert us to any asset failure so that we can attend and organise any necessary repairs as soon as possible. There is also pressure monitoring on the rising main to alert us about any potential bursts.”
Flooding at Petsoe End - One of the roles of Milton Keynes City Council as the Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA) is to carry out investigations into flooding incidents if they meet the set thresholds. The LLFA will:
• identify and explain the likely cause/s of flooding;
• identify which authorities, communities and individuals have relevant flood risk management powers and responsibilities in respect of the flooding incident;
• provide recommendations for each of those authorities, communities and individuals; and
• outline whether those authorities, communities or individuals have or will exercise their powers or responsibilities in response to the flooding incident.
The parish council wrote to the LLFA notifying them that it believed that Petsoe End qualified for a flood investigation under s19 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 because, to the extent of our information at this date, we understood that there were five properties, in close proximity to each other, that were flooded internally in the same flood event on 22 September 2024. The parish council has also written to the residents of Petsoe End, asking them, if they were affected by the flooding on the 22nd September, to submit a “Report a Flood” form on MKCC’s website with additional information being emailed to the LLFA.
The LLFA have recently confirmed that there will be a Section 19 investigation for the September flood event affecting the Milton Keynes area but only if five flood reports are received from residents to bring any detailed focus on Petsoe End. However, this s19 report can only address the flooding issues specifically affecting Petsoe End or Emberton to the extent that the residents affected by the flooding pass the relevant information to the LLFA. Therefore, if your property was affected by the flooding, please do submit a “Report a Flood” form on the MKCC website and/or email the LLFA on llfa@milton-keynes.gov.uk
Annual Assembly – The Annual Assembly will be held on Monday 17th March at 7pm in The Pavilion; all residents are welcome to attend. All parish council meetings are open to the public and residents are permitted to speak at the beginning of the meeting. The dates of the meetings can be found on this website under the heading “meetings.”