COMMENT: problems of overgrown trees led finally to this response from the Jedi Council aka the Environment Agency

Given my penchant for movies past and present, this got the old grey matter thinking in relation to my recent contact with the Environment Agency and our local drainage board.

In 1986, 900 years after William the Conqueror’s original Domesday Book, the BBC published the Domesday Project, an ambitious attempt to capture the essence of life in the UK. Over a million people contributed to this digital snapshot of the country with participants asked to record what they thought would be of interest in another 1000 years. The whole of the UK was divided into 23,000 4x3km areas called Domesday Squares or 'D-Blocks'. The entry for the Clyce at that time included:

'The R. Clyce runs through Highbridge. There are two bridges over the river, one carries the main road, the other is a big stone sluice that controls the River Clyce. The gates are automatic, operated by two huge chains and electric motors. There are two wooden gates that the incoming tide shuts out too. A wire stretches across the river to stop boats drifting into the locks. The river is very muddy at low tide'.

Now hyperspace forward almost 30 years to today where a real sense of belonging and community spirit continues to exist along the Clyce. Our regular walks adjacent to the river and long chats with friendly locals about what it's like living here reveals that the wildlife observed includes badgers, foxes, kingfishers and our lesser spotted Highbridge county councillor (usually at election time). Residents recall fondly, memories of yesteryear with boats passing carrying loads of cargo including timber and coal and a gentle reminder that the Beeb entry is 'wrong ...the river is the Brue and the sluice is the Clyce, everybody here knows that!'

Many of the locals, some elderly having lived here since childhood, advised of a long standing issue - the trees on the bank of the river adjoining Clyce Road needing urgent pruning (not the 'slash and burn' carried out in early 2008) with overgrown branches reaching outwards across utility cables, leaf fall creating hazards for elderly residents and covering marked disabled parking zones plus tree sap causing damage to vehicles.

'Can you do anything as a local elected member' was the plea for help. After meeting with our local drainage board, contact with the district council and a succession of emails to the Environment Agency, I felt like a young Luke Skywalker in his X-wing aerobatics against Lord Vader's death star .... talk about being passed from pillar to post - it made one feel like an inebriated R2D2!

My reluctance to go over to the dark side and to instead continue on my quest to seek a solution to the residents problems of overgrown trees led finally to this response from the Jedi Council aka the Environment Agency:

'Thank you for your enquiry regarding maintenance responsibilities on the River Brue, adjacent to Clyce Road in Highbridge. We have inspected our Register of Liabilities and contacted our Estates team to establish the extents of our responsibilities. Our Register shows that the Somerset Rivers Board (a predecessor body of the Agency) owned the road but its maintenance and fenceline was transferred to Highbridge Urban District Council. This maintenance liability has since been transferred to Somerset County Council. In relation to the maintenance of the trees and river banks the Register does not show any maintenance liabilities on the Agency. Our Estates team also has no records showing that the Agency has any ownership liabilities for the channel or river banks and therefore any works that have been carried out to date have been undertaken under our permissive powers. The responsibility for the maintenance of the trees will fall on the riparian owner of the land. We will however continue to exercise our permissive powers should we consider this necessary to mitigate flood risk'.

Now I hear you all saying, 'where does Star Wars come into all of this ....?'

Well, a trawl of the internet reveals that if you own land or property next to a river, stream or ditch you are indeed a ‘riparian landowner’ however separating the houses from the River Brue along 'the Clyce' is Clyce Road so their homes are not 'next to a river?'

As for Star Wars, in a similar vein there has over the past few years been universal debate about who it is that actually owns the rights to the Star Wars empire? I'll leave you to decide, however the Environment Agency needs to heed the warning that 'the force' is with the Clyce Road residents and to quote Master Yoda, 'in a dark place we find ourselves, and a little more knowledge lights our way ...'

The Agency clearly appears to operate in a galaxy far, far away .... rather than giving local residents 'A New Hope' - the parody continues ....

Cllr John Parkes, Highbridge