Hi all,

Several members of the ROC dealt with an incident in February (as mentioned in the March 2025 newsletter) with regards to the main park lake overflowing into Archbury Walk / the Walled Gardens. It was quickly determined that this was due to drainage works carried out by Audley, that then had a knock-on effect of causing the flooding.

With pressure from the ROC on wanting to know what happened and why there was initially a delay in all parties responding to the problem, Encore and Berkeley have now written a full report detailing what happened, and what has been put in place to prevent such an occurrence again.

I invite all residents to read the report below and get in touch with either myself or your representative if you have any questions.

Thanks

Stefano Elia (Chair, ROC)

‍

Dear Residents,

We would like to share a summary of the findings and actions with relation to the recent drainage issues at The Walled Gardens:

- Initial Incident (Wednesday 26th February): Audley Villages carried out maintenance on their lake. During this work, the land lake suddenly drained, and water flowed down the hill towards The Walled Gardens.

- Initial Investigation (Thursday 27th February): Berkeley Homes attended site and carried out an investigation into the cause of the release of water.

- Key Findings: The investigation confirmed that the original drainage for the lake was via a drain that extended from the lake chamber across the Berkeley communal land adjacent to Gardener's Cottage. This drain had been removed and capped underground; the drain was not removed all the way back to the lake chamber, as the mature trees and their root systems in this area would have been severely impacted by any removal works. A new outfall in the lake chamber was installed, and pipework introduced to take any run-off into the new surface water drainage system.

- Redundant Drain Issue: The works carried out by Audley introduced water into the lake chamber, which then flowed down the redundant pipe into a drain rather than the new outfall. It is likely that the volume of water was such that it displaced the capping to the redundant drain at the point where the water appeared.

- Subsequent inspections by the Berkeley Homes team confirmed that the redundant drain is now capped at a level above the outfall pipe in the lake chamber.

- Berkeley Homes also arranged to excavate the redundant drain and re-bung/cap it to provide further peace of mind that a repeat incident cannot occur.

Berkeley Homes then met with Kevin Green from Audley and their Facilities Manager Jonathan Tewson on the 14th March to gather a full understanding of the works that were completed to the lake drainage system as well as their ongoing maintenance regime.Audley have acknowledged that The Walled Garden properties are not sited on a floodplain and it was agreed that the surface water drainage system is in place to manage the lake overflow.

Audley confirmed their drainage contractor has fully sealed the redundant overflow pipe. They confirmed they have a maintenance contract in place with Clearwater (clearwaterplm.co.uk) who also advised that the film recently observed on the surface of the upper ponds is due to a fortnightly treatment they have recommended to assist in the aeration of the water and help to keep it clearer.

On the 4th April, we have received confirmation that the excavation works to re-bung the redundant drain have been completed. Berkeley Homes are confident that with the works both Audley and Berkeley have completed to date, a repeat of this incident is extremely unlikely.

There are now established protocols in place for future communication between Berkeley Homes and Audley Villages regarding any maintenance to the lake, trees or other works which may impact either party. Relevant updates will be passed onto Encore to share with residents. We would request that any queries are initially channelled via Encore and we will in turn escalate to Berkeley Homes and Audley Villages as necessary.

Audley have provided the following number that will reach the relevant team outside of office hours to deal with any incidents at the site - 01344 962 000. Depending on the nature of the concerns raised, they will be able to assess the best course of action.

The Out of Hours Service provided by Encore (on 01344823650 outside of regular office hours) has also received this number and instruction on how to proceed should an incident of such nature ever occur again. This is following an escalation of how the initial out of hours call was handled unsatisfactorily.

Please do contact us should you have any further queries.

Sincerely,

The Estate Management Team