Save Furnivall Gardens from Thames Water’s ‘super sewer’ craters |
| Posted on Aug 13 2008 |
Thames Water want to rip up Furnivall Gardens, one of our few green and open spaces and threaten the Thames Path to build a massive ‘super sewer’ under the River Thames.
This would involve digging a 30 metre hole in the popular park to pump tonnes of soil from underneath the Thames to construct a £2.5 billion sewage storage tank. This would go on for eight years at least and to add insult to injury, Thames Water bill payers will be expected to pay £300 each for it!
Whilst there are problems with flooding and sewerage, Shaun is not convinced this is the solution and he is against the destruction of our local green spaces.
Thames Water has also failed to answer several key questions about the plans:
- Why is the ‘super sewer’ necessary? Thames Water have admitted that this sewer will do little to prevent flooding and a GLA Environment Spokesman has said the Thames is already ‘one of the cleanest metropolitan rivers in the world’.
- Why Hammersmith? If the ‘super sewer’ really is necessary, why does it need to start in Hammersmith? Original plans placed the crater further west, where there is the space to cope with it.
- Why use green spaces? If Hammersmith must be the starting point, why do Thames Water want to destroy green spaces? They could have looked at brownfield sites to use. For example, it isn’t long ago that they sold the Pump House for building flats, which would have been a better site. Not only did they sell in the full knowledge that they wanted to build the ‘super sewer’, but they could have used the profits to pay for it, rather than forcing thousands into water poverty.
The truth is that the Labour Government is pushing Thames Water to get on and build the ‘super sewer’ in order to avoid being fined under a badly drafted EU directive. A better approach would be stand up to the EU, get the directive changed and look at some more practical solutions to ensuring local residents and our stretch of the River is protected from sewerage.
Commenting, Shaun said: “No one wants sewage seeping into the Thames, but surely building a £2.5 billion septic tank under our river on the back of a weak environmental case, obliterating open spaces, and bringing chaos to the borough for eight years while landing residents with a £300 plus bill isn’t the answer. That is why, along with the local Conservative Council, I am opposed to the Thames Water proposals for Hammersmith.”
Last changed: Aug 14 2008 at 3:38 PM
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