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The Jubilee River - key facts

A £110m world-class, award winning scheme that fell apart on first use and is still unable to carry its design capacity!

£5m in repairs, a £2.75m out-of-court settlement for sub-standard design and now degrading fast.

The Environment Agency continues to deny liability for this fiasco!!

And now we have the £300m LTFRMS proposal ................

• Project conceived around 1984

• Jubilee River map (EA) 163Kb.pdf

• Purpose - to reduce the risk of flooding in Maidenhead, Windsor and Eton

• MWEFAS - Maidenhead, Windsor and Eton Flood Alleviation Scheme

• Takes flood water out of Thames upstream of Maidenhead

• Transports flood water in a parallel channel

• Returns flood water into Thames downstream of Windsor (in Datchet)

• List of Datchet Parish Council objections to MWEFAS - first published May 1992

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• List of Datchet Parish Council objections to MWEFAS - May 1992 - word processed

• Public Inquiry into MWEFAS - 1992 (Please contact me for details)

• Inspector forecast hydraulic model shortcomings (1992 PI report)

• Ministerial approval (with reservations) - 1995

• Over 400 Compulsory Purchase Orders raised.

• Built by the Environment Agency - 1997/2002 approx

• 12km long, 50m wide man-made channel

• Cost-reduction commenced as construction contracts were placed

• Royal opening for 'Jubilee River' in 2002

• £110m of your money to build world-class award-winning scheme

• Mis-operated and fell apart on first use in January 2003

• Major structural damage to channel at only 2/3rds of design capacity.

• Diverted floodwater on to defenceless villages downstream of Windsor

• Hundreds of households affected by flooding for the first time since 1947

• Public Inquiry refused

• Elliot Morley and the Jubilee River 'blame game' (Hansard -March 2003)

• 13/5/09 - Elliot Morley claimed £16,000 for mortgage that did not exist (Telegraph)

• EA CEO attempted to cover up the mistakes (Newspaper article)

• EA CEO attempted to cover up the mistakes (Detail and download instructions)

• EA Board Paper - November 2003

• EA road-show - exercise in spin and obfuscation at public expense.

• Flood Risk Action Group whitewash, Thames Flood Forum ceased (EA withdrew funding)

• 'The Jubilee River - nothing to celebrate here' (Ciwem Conference - Sept 2004)

• Myrke bend radius problem

• Thousands of households suffer increased insurance costs - to both premium and excess

• Some households now unable to obtain property insurance

• Revised EA flood maps affect property values

• Jubilee River needed £millions in repair costs (estimate - £5m)

• Sub-standard design and construction exposed

• EA sues designers of failed JR flood defence (NCE)

• Environment Agency v Lewin Fryer & Partners [2006] EWHC 1597 (TCC) (06 July 2006)

• EA received £2.75m in out-of-court settlement with designers

• Jubilee River still unable to carry design capacity of 215 cumecs

• Gauge boards submerged

• Flood water hazard at Black Potts

• Dredging of River Thames (for flood defence purposes) abandoned 1996

• Radioactive waste discharged into Thames for fifty years.

• Thames Catchment Flood Management Plan - published July 2008

• 'A monument to EA skills shortage' (Prof Knight in evidence to EFRA C'tee)

• Jubilee River extension (LTFRMS) consultation published - September 2009 > LTFRMS Consultation

• Read the Jubilee River story

• Read the Jubilee River story - Index

'What's wrong with the Jubilee River?'

National Flood Prevention Party