Flooding: Thames Water holds drop-in session today

Thames Water is staging an all day drop-in session for people affected by sewer flooding in the Lambourn valley.
Residents are invited to the Memorial Hall on Oxford Street, Lambourn, from 11am to 8pm to speak face-to-face with staff from the company.
Operations director for Thames Water, Bob Collington, said: "We know many of our customers in the Lambourn area have had a really awful time with flooding-related problems caused by record recent rainfall.
"We also recognise that our communication with them could have been better.”
He added: “This drop-in session is part of us putting that right. We want to speak with people one-on-one and reassure them we are doing all we can to help tackle this problem.
"While we recognise that having tanker lorries running 24/7 is not ideal, particularly on narrow country lanes, right now this is the only way to remove excess flows from overloaded drains and stop some of our customers’
properties flooding.
“Stopping people flooding is our top priority. We will continue tankering in the areas worst-affected for as long as is necessary."
Thames Water has created a page on its website specifically to update flood-affected customers in the Lambourn valley - www.thameswater.co.uk/lambourn.
The wettest year on record in England has left the ground saturated, like a soaked sponge. The River Lambourn has also burst its banks.
River and spring water continue to flow into the local sewers, which are designed only to take wastewater form homes and businesses. This is putting the network under considerable strain, and has led to some people’s homes and gardens flooding.
Thames Water is running a relay of tanker lorries around the clock in Lambourn, sucking excess flows out of the overloaded sewers to prevent people’s properties flooding.
Groundwater levels are expected to remain high throughout the winter, so the risk of flooding to some people’s properties remains very real.
The Lambourn area is one of around a dozen flooding hotspots across the company’s London and Thames Valley region.
Mr Collington added: “The underlying cause of this problem - high groundwater and full rivers - remains. This means, potentially, for the rest of the winter months, flooding-related problems could recur at flooding hotspots, particularly after any significant rainfall.
“We are prepared for this and we continue trying our best to prioritise people most in need of help.
"It is also worth noting that sewer flooding would have been far more widespread if our 109,000km network was not successfully dealing with the bulk of the river and groundwater flowing into it."