When the former Parry's yard was sold by Ennstones to SMC (Shropshire Mini Mix) the yard was surrounded by woodland. The yard was higher than the existing woodland through infilling from the 1950s - 1970s but was screened by the mature broadleaf woodland which was retained.
This is the Certificate of Lawful Use for Parry's which shows where the site always drained to.
Three things then happened which destroyed the entire drainage system.
Firstly, SMC instantly removed all the trees and started infilling. The problem is that they infilled over the outlet pipe which drained into a ditch along the back of the yard. They were told by my father that they had buried the pipe in 2006 or early 2007.
This is roughly where the outlet pipe should be. Looking at this photograph they may have attempted to find this pipe, but I checked in 2009 and after feeling under the water could find no outlet to the yard.
Secondly, SMC decided to build a huge soil pile in what had been a field to the west of my grans house. As this picture shows you have a septic tank and manhole in this field.
The septic tank was fenced into my grans land. I checked this area because of waterlogging of my grans garden and found that SMC had removed the wooden fencing from around the ROUND chamber, removed the cover and put a square cover in its place. So on both sides the rounded area was open. The soil pile above got bigger and bigger, so it's hardly surprising this section of drainage packed up.
Did SMC know? Yes, because I wrote to them in 2009 and told them.
At this stage I hadn't gone beyond the tree blocking the ditch up to the yard itself because it is incredibly hard to do because of head high brambles.
Thirdly, the final nail in the drainage systems coffin was this:-
Waste pouring into the drains because SMC never brought a road sweeper in, never cleaned the drive, and never cleaned the drains out. If you have a compromised outlet pipe with this backing up behind it it is no surprise that you end up with this:-
What did the occupants of the industrial estate do next? I had long suspected that they channelled the water directly into the woodland because the Forestry woodland south of the yard suddenly filled up with filthy water.
You don't naturally get this colour water on peaty ground, and its distinctive colour matched the water on the yard and in the ditches. I'll go into the polluted ditches another day. Then we had a planning application in 2011 which shows this:-
The chamber which led to the oil interceptor, or PA as noted here, doesn't go there any more, it goes south. It is called a storm water soakaway, which is impossible on this land as it is as low lying as the house, but there is a drain going south from this into the Forestry woodland, where there was no ditch to connect into.
So does this explain the filthy water flooding the woodland (cut down and due to be replanted). If so this system also failed because you cannot drain the huge volume of water this industrial estate discharges into wet woodland at the same level, it can't be absorbed, as the photographs show.
So yet again we had major flooding to the driveway.
Again nothing was done. It took until 2016 - SEVEN YEARS after this damage was done, before a new pipe was put in on this driveway.
What did Shawbury Industrial Estate Management (SIEMC) say was the problem with the drainage?
'As you know the land that we all occupy has been challenged with numerous drainage issues. These arise from inherent geological problems common with land in this area, poor drainage design and as you are also aware has been exacerbated due to damage caused by yourself to the main drainage run for the site...'.
No mention of blocking the outlet pipe, filling the drain with soil and blocking the pipework with waste. It has to be my fault for not allowing the entire industrial estate to backflow into our 1000 gallon septic tank.
But it gets worse, because during this time Shropshire Council continually passed planning applications for buildings when they were constantly told, and sent photographs, to show there was no functioning drainage system. They have also never been given a drainage plan of the entire industrial estate and show no inclination to request one.
This is the Certificate of Lawful Use for Parry's which shows where the site always drained to.
Firstly, SMC instantly removed all the trees and started infilling. The problem is that they infilled over the outlet pipe which drained into a ditch along the back of the yard. They were told by my father that they had buried the pipe in 2006 or early 2007.
This is roughly where the outlet pipe should be. Looking at this photograph they may have attempted to find this pipe, but I checked in 2009 and after feeling under the water could find no outlet to the yard.
Secondly, SMC decided to build a huge soil pile in what had been a field to the west of my grans house. As this picture shows you have a septic tank and manhole in this field.
The septic tank was fenced into my grans land. I checked this area because of waterlogging of my grans garden and found that SMC had removed the wooden fencing from around the ROUND chamber, removed the cover and put a square cover in its place. So on both sides the rounded area was open. The soil pile above got bigger and bigger, so it's hardly surprising this section of drainage packed up.
Did SMC know? Yes, because I wrote to them in 2009 and told them.
At this stage I hadn't gone beyond the tree blocking the ditch up to the yard itself because it is incredibly hard to do because of head high brambles.
Thirdly, the final nail in the drainage systems coffin was this:-
Waste pouring into the drains because SMC never brought a road sweeper in, never cleaned the drive, and never cleaned the drains out. If you have a compromised outlet pipe with this backing up behind it it is no surprise that you end up with this:-
What did the occupants of the industrial estate do next? I had long suspected that they channelled the water directly into the woodland because the Forestry woodland south of the yard suddenly filled up with filthy water.
You don't naturally get this colour water on peaty ground, and its distinctive colour matched the water on the yard and in the ditches. I'll go into the polluted ditches another day. Then we had a planning application in 2011 which shows this:-
The chamber which led to the oil interceptor, or PA as noted here, doesn't go there any more, it goes south. It is called a storm water soakaway, which is impossible on this land as it is as low lying as the house, but there is a drain going south from this into the Forestry woodland, where there was no ditch to connect into.
So does this explain the filthy water flooding the woodland (cut down and due to be replanted). If so this system also failed because you cannot drain the huge volume of water this industrial estate discharges into wet woodland at the same level, it can't be absorbed, as the photographs show.
So yet again we had major flooding to the driveway.
Again nothing was done. It took until 2016 - SEVEN YEARS after this damage was done, before a new pipe was put in on this driveway.
What did Shawbury Industrial Estate Management (SIEMC) say was the problem with the drainage?
'As you know the land that we all occupy has been challenged with numerous drainage issues. These arise from inherent geological problems common with land in this area, poor drainage design and as you are also aware has been exacerbated due to damage caused by yourself to the main drainage run for the site...'.
No mention of blocking the outlet pipe, filling the drain with soil and blocking the pipework with waste. It has to be my fault for not allowing the entire industrial estate to backflow into our 1000 gallon septic tank.
But it gets worse, because during this time Shropshire Council continually passed planning applications for buildings when they were constantly told, and sent photographs, to show there was no functioning drainage system. They have also never been given a drainage plan of the entire industrial estate and show no inclination to request one.
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