Individual land owners are responsible for their own land’s drainage. Under land drainage law, the property or land owner has the responsibility to maintain land drainage systems where they cross or border that property or land.
Individual land owners are also responsible for accepting and dealing with the natural flows from adjoining land. They must not create or allow an obstruction to that natural flow to occur.
Land drains
Land drains or field drains are the responsibility of the land owners to maintain where they cross or border that land or property.
Ditches and watercourses
Ditches and watercourses, including those that are piped, are the responsibility of the land owners on each side of the ditch or watercourse. They are called riparian owners.
Riparian owners must allow the ditch or watercourse to flow without obstruction, pollution or diversion. This includes keeping culverts and their entrances and exits free from obstruction.
Owners must not divert, block, fill in, culvert or control the flow of any river, stream or watercourse without prior consultation and/or consent from Wigan Council or the Environment Agency.
The Council has permissive legal powers to make landowners remove obstructions on ordinary watercourses and is also able to investigate this type of flooding.
Main rivers
The Environment Agency (EA) has powers to maintain and improve main rivers. These powers are permissive only, so there is no obligation on the EA to carry out these works and legal responsibility for main rivers lies with the riparian owners. Individual landowners are thus still responsible for making sure main rivers are not obstructed on their land and the EA has legal powers to make landowners remove watercourse obstructions. In addition landowners must not carry out works affecting a main river without the consent of the EA.
In practice the Environment Agency (external link) will carry out maintenance work on main rivers. They can be contacted on 0845 9881188.
