Thames Tunnel Meeting in Chiswick

I attended the Thames Tunnel meeting earlier this evening. It was organised by the local Southfield Park Triangle Residents'Association and had three representatives from Thames Water. Myself and fellow ward Councillors Harvey Rose and Andrew Steed attended to listen to their views from residents.

The Thames Tunnel project is to build a new and large sewer, to hopefully stop the Thames from the pollution of sewage we currently have to endure in London. Thames Water say: "The project will tackle the problem of overflows from the capital’s Victorian sewers for at least the next 100 years, and enable the UK to meet European environmental standards."

If you have not heard about the consultation then please see this website.

In basic terms the plan from Thames Water is to use parts of their existing pumping station and storm water tanks site (adjacent to Canham Road) for this construction work. They also want to build a ventilation chimney on the site.

At the meeting there was nearly 50 residents and after the three Thames Water staff spoke about the current plans, residents had the chance to ask questions. During the discussion a number of points were made:

• Thames Water's plan is to build construction shaft adjacent to Canham Road.
• The construction time for the proposed Thames Tunnel is 4 years and it would probably finish in 2022
• Planning permission from the Planning Inspectorate will be sought in early 2013.
• A previous report for noise caused by Thames Tunnel showed it would negatively affect Greenend Road
• Thames Water stated that they plan to do some (for about 6 months) of the works 24 hours a day
• The proposed ventilation chimney would be 5 stories tall (and seen from neighbouring streets)
• Thames said that the air will not smell, coming from the ventilation shaft
• One resident thought that the Thames Tunnel ventilation tunnel could be made into a feature.
• Thames Water said they will consider replacement parking given their vehicles will reduce residents' parking provision (but no details of how this might work were quoted)
• Thames Water have pledged to ensure that security during construction of Thames Tunnel will not allow people to breach the fencing

When the meeting ended obviously a lot of residents were not convinced about some of the promises made by Thames Water.

Personally I feel that Ealing Council (who only got involved in this late into the day) need to really ensure that if planning approval is given for the works, then it must ensure 100% that Thames Water so not flout their promises about any noise their work and equipment might cause.

There will be opportunities for residents to give their views on the latest proposals and this was said to occur later this Summer.

Watch this space!