ENVIRONMENT AGENCY officials this week ruled out
any further works to bring the Jubilee River
flood defence channel in Berkshire up to its
design capacity.
The £110M channel was severely damaged when used
for the first and so far only time in January
2003 and was subsequently found to be
significantly under-designed and operating at
just two-thirds capacity (NCE 19 August 2004).
Repairs and improvement work since then have
brought the channel up to 90% of design capacity
and the Agency has now accepted it is
impracticable to make any further improvements.
"We've taken it as far as we can without having
to justify it as a new project, " said Agency
south east area flood risk manager Ian Tomes.
"Further work would require a new planning
application and would have to be separately
justifi d under Department for the Environment
Food & Rural Affairs regulations, and we have
much higher priorities." The Agency is to unveil
plans to alleviate floding to the remainder of
the non-tidal River Thames downstream of channel
in November.
Residents groups who have campaigned for the
channel to be brought up to its full design
capacity have vowed to fight on.
"The Agency may think that this matter is ended
but it is not, " said Datchet Parish councillor
Ewan Larcombe.
Last week the Agency reached an out of court
settlement with the scheme's designers Lewin
Fryer & Partners, under which the consultant
paid £2.75M towards repairs and improvements
(News last week).
The Agency's claim was purely against the
scheme's designers.
The Agency described the settlement is
"substantial" contribution to the cost of
repairs caused by the design flaws but does not
compensate the Agency for the channel's failure
to meet its design aims.
"There is nobody to blame [for the channel being
under capacity], " said Tomes. "It was designed
in the early 1990s using the best modelling they
had.
"What we have recovered is at the upper end of
expectations." |