LOOK OUT FOR THIS YEAR’S LANDOWNER LETTERS FROM BPA
It’s that time of the year again, when BPA writes to the 2000+ landowners and tenants asking them to respond to our letter to ensure all contact details are up to date and correct.
This year we have segmented our mailing to particularly target those we have not heard from for more than a year. It is critically important to respond to the letter as this helps us contact the landowner in the event of an emergency, should there be a leak or if the pipeline need repair or replacement. It is also needed should we need to contact the landowner to access the pipeline for maintenance or inspection purposes.
It also offers BPA’s Lands Team an opportunity to reach out and remind people of the do’s and don’ts around buried high pressure pipelines. This year we have also put a greater emphasis on the ‘Do not dig!’ message. This is particularly important as digging or undertaking other kinds of activities in the vicinity of a pipeline could lead to prosecution or ultimately a serious accident.
Details of what can and can’t be done near to buried high pressure pipelines can be found in the do’s and don’ts section of the website. This advice is particularly pertinent to landowners who have a reduced depth of cover over their pipelines.
Pipelines do not always follow straight lines between marker posts or across fields and often they are covered by a variable amount of soil. The depth of cover can vary due to undulating land but also erosion from wind or water. We continually monitor this and our technicians regularly visit sites to take depth readings.
This year we have written to landowners who may have a reduced depth of cover on parts of their land and have clearly marked on maps where this may be the case. To allow us to further monitor these sites we have asked targeted landowners to take a look at the map with the site location on and complete a few questions and return in the envelope provided.
This helps us better understand where remedial work needs to be undertaken. Work is ongoing on rectifying reduced soil cover sites and over the last few years, we have carried out a diversion and installed slabs and numerous culverts to rectify reduced soil cover issues.
To help incentivise responses we are encouraging landowners to return their questionnaire to us as soon as possible. Those who return their questionnaire before the end of June will be automatically be entered in a competition to win a deluxe hamper worth more than £100!
So, please keep a watch out for the letters from BPA and please be sure to respond and return them to us so that we can keep all your details up to date and correct. If you need to contact our lands team outside of this, please feel free to drop us an email at lands@bpoa.co.uk or give us a call on 0800 585 387.
