Minutes:
Hilary Murgatroyd reported that Thames Water was the largest water and waste provider in the UK, providing 9 million clean water customers in London and the Thames Valley. It had 350 sewage works treating 4.4 billion litres per day of waste water and had 67,000 miles of sewers, over 2,500 pumping stations and 1.2 million manholes. Recently, the Company became responsible for private lateral mains connecting semi-detached and terraced houses to the mains systems.
Thames Water was one of the cheapest providers, with customers paying an average of £1.01p per day.
Thames Water had a duty under the Water Industry Act 1991, to be responsible for sewerage. This included a duty to provide, clean and maintain public sewers and to provide and extend sewerage systems. Whilst responsible for foul water, surface water and combined sewers, the Company had no responsibilities to provide capacity for flood waters.
Members were reminded that, in 2007, adverse weather resulted in extensive flooding across the Region. Whilst Surrey Heath was affected, it was much less so than other areas covered by Thames Water.
The adverse weather, which started in December 2013 and ran into March 2014, caused the biggest flooding event in the Company’s history, resulting in extensive inundation and an estimated 69,500 customers affected across the region. Many Thames Water assets were overwhelmed, including sewers, pumping stations and sewage treatment works. 900 of 2,500 pumping stations were overwhelmed but only four ceased to work.
In response to the flooding, Thames Water increased the number of tankers in the field from 20 to 100 and coped with an increased daily workload from 600 jobs to 1,200. When the response was assessed, Thames Water identified communications as an area needing strengthening. As a result, the number of customer representatives was increased in both clean and waste teams and a new customer service telephone system was introduced enabling more intelligent messaging for customers.
The number of staff in the field was also identified as a weak point. This year, in anticipation of a wet winter, festive cover would be increased from 50% to 70%.
In terms of local issues, Chris Ford identified two recent complaints relating to Lightwater properties and the remedial action taken. He reported on pollution to the River Blackwater in September 2012, resulting from a failure of Plant in the Camberley Sewage Treatment Works. Thames Water had pleaded guilty on 2 counts and sentencing would take place in January 2015. Chris Ford offered to brief Members at a later stage on the outcomes thereof.
Members noted that one of the issues resulting in the failure of machinery at the Camberley Sewage Treatment Works and an ongoing difficulty for Thames Water was the type and quantity of materials disposed through the sewers. Items which did not biodegrade, including wet wipes and kitchen fat/oil/grease contributed to up to half of blockages reported.
Thames Water had engaged in discussions with manufacturers such as Lever Brothers to either consider the make-up of their products, alert customers or both.
Another common issue was mis-connection of pipes so that clean and surface water is directed into foul water pipes that are not designed to cope with the volumes involved.
Members suggested that the Council could provide publicity on behalf of Thames Water through the Heathscene magazine. Hilary Murgatroyd agreed to liaise with the Media and Marketing Manager on appropriate messages. Members agreed to support the ‘Bin It’ campaign via social media.
RESOLVED, that the Media and Marketing Team be asked to publicise the ‘Please bin it, don’t block it’ campaign.