Thames Water is inviting residents in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to have their say on a £280 million scheme designed to protect properties from sewer flooding.

Thames Water’s open consultation will focus on how and where it will construct a new storm relief sewer to safeguard 1,700 homes and businesses that have flooded in recent years across the two boroughs. It is part of a wider programme of work to manage the risk of sewer flooding which started in 2010.

More than a thousand homes and businesses in the area are threatened by heavy rain, which overwhelms drains and sewers, forcing sewage to back-up in the pipes and overspill out of toilets and sinks.

To ensure that the program is sustainable and cost effective, Thames Water set up an Independent Advisory Group comprising three leading academics in the field of urban drainage to review and challenge its plans as they developed.

The scheme includes innovative trials of sustainable drainage systems and measures to protect individual properties, which has helped to substantially reduce the overall cost of the project and limit the new storm relief sewer to a five kilometre-long section to capture excess rainwater. Both boroughs have been involved in the development of the approach.

 Councillor Nick Paget-Brown, Leader of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, said:

“Many of us remember the flooding in 2007 and the problems it caused for residents. Since then, our planning policy was changed to reduce and mitigate flood risk in the borough. But clearly this can only go so far and so we have also been working closely with Thames Water to see what they can do to alleviate the risk of flooding in the Counters Creek area.”

“This is a very important consultation that will have an impact on residents while the work is being carried out but offers the best opportunity, in many years, to reduce the flooding risk in Counters Creek. I encourage everyone to let Thames Water know what they think of their proposals.”

Members of its project team will be at a series of public exhibitions and community briefings, supported by a dedicated website www.thameswater.co.uk/counterscreek during the consultation period, which runs from November 20 to January 25.

Thames Water managing director Lawrence Gosden said:

“We really value feedback from people in the area on this important project and want to encourage them to come and see us or send in their comments.

“Sewer flooding is a truly miserable experience and it is simply unacceptable that so many people in this area should fear being flooded with sewage every time it rains. We appreciate our work will cause some disruption, but this scheme is vital to protect homes and businesses.

"This consultation will help us to understand what we can do keep disruption to a minimum and make sure that, in the areas where we’ll be working, we’re as good a neighbour as we can possibly be.”

 The water company has been working on a range of other measures to further reduce the risk of sewer flooding, including fitting 700 non-return valves on properties since 2010 to stop sewage backing up through their pipes. A further 600 will be installed over the next six years.

 A Thames Water study revealed the urbanisation of London has contributed to the area’s problems, with impermeable land like tarmac, which stops rainwater filtering through soil, in the Counters Creek area increasing by around 17 per cent since 1971.

 This means rainwater is running straight into already-overstretched sewers built in the 1800s for a city whose population has since trebled in size.

 Feedback on the project can be submitted at the meetings, by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visiting www.thameswater.co.uk/counterscreek