East Woodhay councillors grill Thames Water over village sewage/flooding problems
At an East Woodhay Parish Council meeting last Monday, Thames Water officials Hilary Murgatroyd and Carl Smith, faced questions from the leader of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council and East Woodhay borough councillor Clive Sanders and other councillors.
Concerns centred on leaks at the sewage pumping station at Bindman’s Gate, off the A343 Andover Road, and a new 49-house development underway at Harwood Paddock, which is being built on a flood plain.
Councillors said the local sewage network needed to be upgraded to deal with the additional houses and queried whether the pumping station was adequate.
Mr Smith said equipment at the pumping station had been upgraded after power failures on July 18 and September 19 caused the pumps to stop.
He said: “It’s normal for pumping stations to have power glitches. We are trying to get into the position where we can reactivate the pumps remotely, rather than getting technicians out.”
Parish councillor Graham Dick queried how much time Thames Water had to re-activate the pumping station, to prevent sewage leaks, following any power failures,
“We have something in the order of 12 hours’ storage,” said Mr Smith, pointing out the station was built around three decades ago.
Ms Murgatroyd said Thames Water had been overwhelmed with flooding problems last year, and a meeting this week was aimed at tightening up internal procedures and preventing five or six engineers being sent to tackle the same problem, when one was adequate.
In March last year, following heavy rain, the sewage pumping station became overloaded with stormwater, causing sewage to overflow into a stream at The Chase, a nature reserve and beauty spot in the village.
In November 2012, Thames Water sent tankers to The Chase, on standby to prevent sewage spills, due to heavy rain.
The Chase was closed for two weeks in September 2012 after a sewage leak at the site, the third in recent years. The worst leak occurred in July 2006, killing thousands of fish.
A new parish councillor, Harry Anscombe, who recently moved to the village from Kintbury, was tasked by the parish council with responsibility for village utilities.