Gravenhurst residents – do you have a ditch alongside your property boundary?

Central Bedfordshire Council have advised that they will no longer clear roadside ditches and that they have adopted a kerb-to-kerb approach so anything outside the kerb is the nearest landowner’s responsibility to maintain.

This is the case even if the verge and ditch are on Highways-adopted land or your deeds clearly show the ditch or watercourse is outside your property boundary therefore you do not own the ditch. Central Bedfordshire Council say that, as the nearest landowner, it is your riparian responsibility to maintain it and reduce the risk of flooding from the watercourse – and Central Bedfordshire Council may take legal action against you if this is not done.

Here is CBC’s leaflet explaining riparian responsibilities which they have told local residents still apply even if the road alongside your property boundary is a major A road.