An urgent public meeting to challenge Thames Water’s ‘ludicrous’ decision to dump the giant super sewer drive shaft on a residential street in Fulham has been called by the council.
The Super Sewer Summit , on December 7, will allow locals to probe Thames Water’s decision to earmark south Fulham for the main sewer construction site for their £4.1billion Thames Tunnel.
Thames Water’s u-turn, in deviating from their original choice outside of the borough, has sparked a wave of protests from residents and businesses south of Lillie Road – especially in the tight knit residential community around Carnwath Road.
Despite admitting at a meeting in October that using the Fulham riverside would be more costly and more disruptive to more people Thames Water named Carnwath Road as the ‘preferred site’ for the main west London tunnel drive shaft earlier this month.
The public meeting, organised by Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Council, will be the first chance that residents, councillors and the MP have had to publicly question Thames Water about their change of heart.
Cllr Nick Botterill, H&F Council’s Deputy Leader, said:
"It is ludicrous that a densely packed residential community has been selected as the main drive site when Thames Water officials have admitted that it will affect more people and cost more money. We need to understand what is driving Thames Water’s bizarre u-turn and then persuade them that there are better alternatives.”
Fears have emerged that 29,000 lorries will bring roads like New King’s Road and Wandsworth Bridge Road to a standstill during the six years of construction work.
Anti super sewer site campaigners, backed by H&F Council, have vowed to fight the proposal and launch a concerted effort to persuade Thames Water to reverse the decision in time for the final selection deadline - which is expected next spring.
If construction work goes ahead on the Fulham riverside there would be an average of 31 extra lorry trips every day on west London streets for two years during tunnelling and around 33 per day when the tunnel is being lined.
Thames Water plans to move all plant and construction materials by road to reduce costs. Only excavated spoil will be taken by barge, despite the existence of the wharf being given as one of their key reasons for using Carnwath Road.
Earlier in the autumn the Selborne Commission - which was an independent study and report sponsored by five London councils – announced that a ‘shorter tunnel, combined with green infrastructure solutions that are built up incrementally in the medium to long term, would be both compliant with EU directives and less costly and disruptive to Londoners’.
