St Matthew's Church Hosts Open Meeting about Super Sewer on Tuesday

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Residents' association PRARA urge local people to attend

PRARA, the Peterborough Road and Area Residents' Association, is combining its AGM on Tuesday October 18 with an Open Meeting about the proposal by Thames Water to use two empty wharves in Carnwath Road for the construction of a construction shaft providing access to the planned Thames Tunnel, or the Super Sewer as it has become known.

A senior representative of Thames Water will be present at the meeting, offering the last opportunity for local people to question Thames Water direct before the next round of formal consultations.

Both meetings will take place at St. Matthew's Church in Wandsworth Bridge Road. The AGM will be from 6.30pm till 7pm with the Open Meeting at 7.15pm for 7.30pm.

PRARA are urging local people to attend the meeting and add: " Please invite your neighbours. Because of the huge detrimental impact on the whole PRARA area we have registered our objections direct with Thames Water and numerous other bodies including Government departments, our MP, regulatory bodies and our Council. Further information can be found in our latest newsletter."

The PRARA area, which already includes Clancarty Road, Daisy Lane, Hugon Road, South Park Mews, Settrington and Sulivan Roads has been expanded to include Dymock and Breer Streets following requests from residents in those roads. Membership requests are being handled by the association's new Membership Secretary and Treasurer, Jonnie Godfrey. Contact Jonnie by emailing jgodfrey@icuknet.co.uk.

Members of Fulham RATS - Residents Against Thames Sewer - who are campaigning against the construction shaft being sited in Fulham, are also expected to attend the meeting. Earlier this month, a RATS delegation had an onsite meeting with Thames Water’s Head of London Tideway Tunnels Phil Stride and Director of External Affairs and Sustainability Richard Aylard.

Phil described the meeting as "productive and cordial" after the RATS representatives presented them with a petition and a 30-page submission document, providing a detailed comparative analysis of the site against the company’s explicit published site selection criteria for the tunnel.

Hammersmith and Fulham Council has consistently opposed the Thames Tunnel, which which Thames Water says is required to reduce the level of untreated sewage overflowing from Victorian sewers into the river. Find out more at Hot Topic: super sewer.

The proposed tunnel will run for approximately 20 miles through London, and up to 75 metres beneath the River Thames, broadly following the path of the river. Along the way it will capture the flows of storm sewage from 34 sewer overflow points along the River Thames.

The council says this latest meeting comes just weeks before Lord Selborne’s independent commission – which is sponsored by five riverside boroughs including our own, and is examining ways of cleaning up the river – is due to make its final recommendations public.

Meanwhile Thames Water plans to to begin the second phase of its public consultation next month. You can read all the background to the project and the consultation on the website.

 

 

 

October 17, 2011