Maintenance on Crudwell FLAG

Clearing channel drainage

Mon, 11 May 2026 20:47:56 +0100

We noticed this unloved drain across a footpath in the village. It’s a channel drain, often referred to as an ACO drain, and you’ll find them all over the place. Drainage like this is designed to take rainwater off the surface and away underground. Without these channel drains, when it rains there would be puddles and little rivers everywhere.

Rather than attempt to determine who is responsible for not maintaining this, we felt we could clear it ourselves.

💡 Try to stay in everyone’s good books! It’s worth telling immediate neighbours or even the Parish Council that you’re going to do this work.

You see the metal covers? These ones can be levered off with a crowbar (a screwdriver isn’t long enough). It’s important to check before you start because some types are bolted down and need a special tool. Do some internet research if you’re not sure.

With the covers off, it’s simple to clear out the years of accumulated soil. There might also be a trap, a small pit, where there’s even more soil. Clear that too.

It’s clear now. It took less than an hour to do this safely. Next time it rains, it’ll do the job it’s supposed to do.

💡 Safety considerations:

Do this with another volunteer eg. a neighbour.

Don’t leave a trip hazard for others.

Don’t use unecessary force removing the covers.

Take the soil away.

Replace the covers correctly - they need to lie flush with the surface.

Our Request for Highways Drainage improvements

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 13:24:07 +0100

During the flooding of Storm Bert, we saw how our drainage infrastructure was overwhelmed, and how water flowed along our roads resulting in flooding in some homes in the village.

We listened to residents, and walked around the parish spotting opportunities to improve the highways drainage, which we have now taken Wiltshire Council to seek simple improvements.

we know that local government funding for large infrastructure projects was extremely unlikely.
we focused on small changes, like missing road gulleys.
we framed many opportunities as questions:
- can this culvert be inspected?
- is a gulley missing here?
- can the pipes under the road go to the fields, not towards homes?
we used what3words so that the Council’s highways team can find the correct place.

The Improvements List

This is the master spreadsheet, embedded from Google Sheets.

Map showing locations

Timeline

In July 2025 the Parish Council arranged a visit by the Principal Drainage Engineer from Wiltshire Council, inviting Crudwell FLAG to attend the meeting. The FLAG followed up by sending a spreadsheet of suggestions, with locations and a map. The FLAG attends the North Wiltshire Operational Flood Working Group on behalf of the Parish, and each time we ask how we can get progress on this.

Free Template

Here is a template you can use for your own community. Download it in .ods or .xlsx format.