BIG TEDDINGTON TURN-OUT FOR CONTROVERSIAL THAMES WATER SEWAGE PLANS
Over 200 people attended a meeting organised by the Teddington Society at The Lensbury tonight (MONDAY) to discuss the impact of Thames Water’s controversial Teddington Direct River Abstraction Scheme (TDRA)
Guests included local Lib Dem MP Munira Wilson who has consistently campaigned against the plan which involves building a 4.5k tunnel under homes, businesses and parks in Isleworth, Teddington, Twickenham, Ham and Kingston.
The campaign against the project is being spearheaded by a group called Save Our Lands and River (SOLAR) which says there are other ‘viable’ alternatives which avoid the ‘dumping of partially treated sewage’ into the River Thames. Tonight they launched their new campaign with a striking logo saying Stop the Thames Sewage Pump.
Claire Llewellin-Smith, managing director of the Lensbury made an introduction explaining how the riverside resort was a big supporter of the river’s health.
Andy Weston of the Teddington Society, which organised the meeting and a lifetime resident of Teddington, described the River as ‘a cherished part of our landscape offering recreation and a diverse eco-system.’
“We are here to foster hope for a cleaner and healthier Thames,” he told the audience.
Leading SOLAR campaigner Ian McNuff has dubbed the scheme the ‘Thames Sewage Pump.’
“We want to show you why the Thames sewage pump is a bad solution anywhere and the better alternatives,” said Ian, who recently challenged the government minister Steve Reed to visit the river himself at Teddington. The Minister said he would check his diary.
Thames Water launch their ten week consultation process tomorrow (Tuesday) and Mr McNuff, a former Olympic rower, urged local residents to ‘engage’ with the process to try to stop the scheme.
He showed a series of slides about the scheme including detailing FOURTEEN reasons that the TDRA scheme ‘is such a bad choice’ including Thames Water spending £1billion on ‘an asset that will operate only six weeks a year’ and increase local residents water bills by £8.
“For the rest of the year it will be a monument on that bank,” he said, pointing out to the river from the Lensbury’s Thames View room.
He added: “ I call it the Thames Sewage Pump because it will dump 2.5 times more treated sewage into the Thames than it abstracts 7.9billion litres v 3.15b litres” and he accused Thames Water of picking ‘old technology.”
He said the ‘alternatives’ include faster leak fixing, smart meter roll out, and surplus water in Queen Mary reservoir and he described Thames Water’s approach as ‘lazy.’
He urged local residents to express their opposition through the Petition, which now has over 32.000 names. You can see the petition here: Petition · Stop the Abstraction Plant at Teddington Weir and Releasing Treated Sewage into the River – United Kingdom · Change.org
You can engage with the Thames Water Consultation which starts tomorrow (tuesday) here: Teddington Direct River Abstraction (TDRA) – Thames Water Resources Management Plan
You can join a Show of Hands protest against the ‘treated sewage pump’ on Saturday June 28 at 10.45am until 2pm Burnell Avenue Green Space (KT2 5RA) See the link here: info@saveourlandsandriver.org.uk
A distributed leaflet says: “Together we can prevent this scheme – the planning decisions are not yet made. Assemble 10.45 on land and on the river – bring your messxages and banners for an 11am Show of Hands.”
