Added 5/12/2009
Response to LTFRMS Consultation - Maggie in Sunnymeads
Dear Sirs
I have been involved with flooding matters since January 2003 when half our estate was under water for six days. We have only been on mains drainage for eight years and quite a number of houses still rely on cess pits. The sewage pumping station at the end of our road was shut down, because it couldn’t cope with the flood water, so we had no sewage disposal system for six days. We have no rainwater drains.
Most of the floodwater came from the Datchet Common Brook that normally flows through the estate and exits into the Thames. This had been backing up for about ten days and water was flooding into people’s gardens and over the footpath by the Windsor to Waterloo railway. I don’t believe much water came from the Thames, because we have a floodbank. Six houses on the estate were technically flooded ie water inside and one bungalow wasn’t lived in again and was pulled down.
I’ve looked at the proposals for the new channel and note that our section is the last that will be built. It’s adding another water course to the area and part of the channel goes through existing lakes, some of which are nature reserves. I don’t think it will solve our flooding problem. We will be stranded on an island. At least now we can get to Staines. We were cut off from Windsor for about 3 days last time and got very near to losing the rail connection.
What I believe should be done is local flood relief work and concentrate on the Datchet Common Brook. A flood gate was proposed and we were told that it wasn’t feasible. Please can I ask the EA to reconsider it rather than plough money into a very costly scheme that we won’t benefit from.
Maggie Gardiner
PS I’ve just read that a private company Windsor Link Railway Company propose a new rail link from Windsor to Heathrow going along a similar route at Sunnymeads to the flood relief channel.