Thames Water Hosts Flood Resilience Drop-in Session


Brackenbury residents urged to attend at Irish Centre in Blacks Road

Recent flooding in Cambridge Grove, HammersmithFlooding in Cambridge Grove, Hammersmith

April 21, 2023

Thames Water is holding a drop-in session on Tuesday April 25 at the Irish Centre in Hammersmith’s Blacks Road between 4 pm and 7pm to discuss flood prevention measures for vulnerable local properties.

Areas which are potentially at risk include streets in Brackenbury, Hammersmith Grove and Askew Village.

Local MP Andy Slaughter and Brackenbury Residents Association are urging residents to attend the session if at all possible.

The association says it is sharing information received from the MP, saying: “ Some of you have received letters explaining what Thames Water are intending to do in relation to the surveys they carried out at your properties but many of you appear not to have heard anything directly.

“ They say that a significant number of properties (around 50 – 60%) have not been surveyed as the owners have not made an appointment for Thames Water to visit. If you haven’t had a property survey you should get in touch with them as soon as possible.

“If you are a tenant, you should question your landlord as to whether they are arranging for one of these surveys at your home.

“ They say that they are prioritising the properties most at risk and designing solutions for a 1 in 30-year event, however we know that what happened in July 2021 exceeded that standard and we may suffer from more exceptional rain events in future due to global warming. Whether what they are offering to do is sufficient remains to be seen. “

Thames Water’s solution to the ongoing risk is to install either Non-Return Valves or FLIPs - short for flooding local improvement project - and have already carried out some work in particular streets to install NRVs and to provide trunk sewer flaps.

However, Brackenbury Residents Association says, “ While these moves are welcome these installations will need to be tested during another heavy rain event. Only then can we know that there is adequate protection in place.

“ There is also a need to reduce the amount of surface water entering and filling up the sewers. We are waiting for a plan from LBHF to install SuDs (sustainable underground drainage systems) in our area and we have been working on including these in our design concepts for specific locations identified under the Better Brackenbury umbrella. More will be needed however.

“ The council also wants to encourage residents to de-pave their gardens where possible or replace hard standing with permeable surfaces to allow rainwater to penetrate the ground rather than run off into the drains. There is likely to be more information available about this initiative at a later stage. “

In January this year, the association published a letter from Thames Water to Andy Slaughter with an update on its sewer resilience programme.

Andy Nickson, Head of London Flood Response, wrote, “ We are continuing to make steady progress in booking surveys with customers who have reported flooding to us and then undertaking them. At the time of writing to you, we have completed 685 property surveys, with a further 130 surveys booked in to be carried in the coming weeks.

“We continue to encourage customers who may have flooded but haven’t yet reported this to us, to do so, making more than 5,000 contacts using letters, emails, phone calls and knocking on their doors.

“ We have noticed a clear decline in the number of people, perhaps due to the festive period, who are now booking surveys, so we have contacted every household yet to arrange one for a third time. If you are aware of anyone who has still not booked a survey, please ask them to email sewersurvey@barhale.co.uk or call our bookings team on 0208 152 8239.”

You can read the letter in full on Brackenbury Residents Association’s website .

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