nEWS RELEASE
ENVIRONMENT AGENCY PROGRESS ON LOWER THAMES STRATEGY DISAPPOINTING.
CSGS News Release
15 November 2006
After a special meeting of several interested parties, including Community Support Group South and ThamesAwash, Ewan Larcombe the Chairman of CSG South, predicted that the forthcoming announcement from the EA on the results of their flooding risk studies would be “both disappointing and totally unsatisfactory.” He went on to say that “after the disastrous flooding of January 2003 and then nearly four years of EA denial, spin and obfuscation, the Thames-side communities downstream of Windsor will now experience an ever-increasing probability of flooding. In particular, the EA have failed to produce mutually agreed Jubilee River Operating Instructions, and any resulting downstream flooding will now be aggravated by their premeditated neglect of water course maintenance. It is about time the EA recognised the priorities, stopped giving excuses and got their act together!”
CSGSouth was set up as part of the Flood Risk Action Group soon after the 2003 flooding. The FRAG reported in 2004 and was disbanded, but many of its findings were later called into question. The FRAG was subsequently replaced by the Thames Flood Forum.
Despite claims that the JubileeRiver worked perfectly, the EA recently agreed a £2.75m out-of-court settlement with the designers of the Jubilee River for design shortcomings that led to structural failures in their brand new £110m flood alleviation scheme that takes flood water out of the Thames upstream of Maidenhead and returns it into the Thames downstream of Windsor. The Jubilee River is still unable to carry its design capacity of 215 cumecs (i.e. 215 cubic metres per second)
The EA continue to reject suggestions that the Jubilee River Operating Instructions should be subjected to independent scrutiny.
The EA have a legal duty to dredge the Thames for navigational purposes. They also have the power to dredge for flood defence purposes but appear reluctant to use that power.
Flood victim Gillie Bolton said: “We have lost faith in the ability of the EA to manage the river, and now live in fear of flooding. The Lower Thames Strategy has progressed nowhere in 3 years and may never happen. It is time action was taken to implement a programme of dredging and river maintenance NOW as this is currently the only sustainable solution to the problem that exists for residents. In the past 3 years money has been wasted on cosmetic work on the locks like unneccessary and expensive fences but little has been spent on alleviating flooding problems.”
Ian Thompson, flood campaigner and local resident, said: “The EA seem unable to understand the workings of their own Jubilee River scheme. It was promised by the original public enquiry that properties downstream would not be “disadvantaged”. There is no doubt that operation of the Jubilee River at present will make matters worse downstream. Nothing has been done to lessen this problem.”
Notes to Editors
1. Ewan Larcombe is flooding spokesman for Datchet Parish Council and also manages the web site www.jubileeriver.co.uk He can be contacted on 01753 544302 or 07968 661431
Press Enquiries: 01753 866838
E-mail: ecwlarcombe@gmail.com Jubilee River website:http://www.jubileeriver.co.uk