I received the following letter by email from Thames Water today. In another email, I had confirmation that tankering is likely to start at the Lambfields Sewage Pumping Station in Church Street, Theale, and that the letter is being distributed to residents in that area.
Alan Macro
Councillor for Theale
Dear
Customer
Recent
heavy rain has led to wide-scale flooding across the Thames Water region.
Information,
including flooding advice can be found on the Environment Agency’s website www.environment-agency.gov.uk or via their Floodline 0845 988
1188.
In
many areas, floodwater is entering our sewer network and in some cases
overloading our pipes and sewage pumping stations. Although these are designed
to take wastewater from homes and businesses, they’re not built to take storm or
river water. This is what’s putting our sewer pipe network under considerable
strain.
To
prevent local homes from flooding by sewage, it is possible that we may have to
deploy a tanker at your local pumping station or elsewhere in the area to
assist in relieving the volumes of water entering it. We’re sorry for any
inconvenience this may cause should we have to take this action.
Please
be assured we are doing everything we can to prepare for any further sewer flooding
by bringing in extra staff and our teams are working around the clock to help
our customers.
If
you experience any problems or have concerns about the tankering or sewer
flooding, please contact our 24-hour Customer Service team on 0845 9200800.
Please
stay safe during these exceptional weather conditions.
Yours
faithfully
Anthony
Crawford
Head
of Waste Networks
Thames
Water