Pressure to persuade Thames Water to rethink its plans for a proposed supersewer looks set to move up a gear next week with a series of public meetings to challenge the utility’s proposals, including a high-level meeting in the House of Lords.

On Monday Lord Berkeley, on behalf of Thamesbank, is hosting a SUDS Inquiry in the House of Lords chaired by Dr Jean Venables CBE, past President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, which will hear from leading water expert Dr Mark Maimone, Senior Vice President of CDM Smith from Philadelphia (Green City/ Clean Water). Dr Maimone will set out how the city of Philadelphia is using a blue green infrastructure solution to address water issues and how this can be applied to London.

A conference on stormwater and green infrastructure in September in Washington, DC heard that the White House is placing a higher priority on stormwater and the establishment of green infrastructure to address it. The Philadelphia approach has this year been adopted as national policy by the US Government.

Professor Richard Ashley, Emeritus Professor Pennine Water Group University of Sheffield will speak about the proposed Tunnel in the context of the SUDS study in Putney used by Thames Water in support of its plans. Professor Ashley was part of the team which prepared Thames Water’s 2010 SUDS study – London Tideway Tunnels Programme: Thames Tunnel Project Needs Report - Potential source control and SUDS applications.

Professor Chris Binnie who chaired the Thames Tideway Strategic Study Group which in 2005 recommended the single tunnel solution and has now said there may be a better alternative will also speak at the meeting. Professor Binnie’s evidence to the Selbourne inquiry said there had been a limited review of alternative options to the Thames Tunnel, with £12,000 spent on researching sustainable urban drainage solutions against the £5 million spent on researching the Thames Tunnel solution. 

Other attendees will include Lord Selbourne who chaired the Thames Tunnel Commission, sponsored by Southwark, Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea councils. The Commission’s final report concluded in 2011 that London can fulfil its obligations to meet EU directives on water quality without building the super sewer. 

Lord Deben, former John Gummer, previously Secretary of State for the Environment and now Chairman of the Committee on Climate Change will also be present at the meeting. It is understood that while Thames Water has also been invited it has declined to attend the meeting.

On Thursday Simon Hughes MP will also be hosting a meeting where CDM Smith will present the Philadelphia experience to MPs and invited members of the public, while a separate public meeting - Thames Tunnel Myths & the sustainable, affordable alternative – will also take place in Putney.

SYR supports local MP on questioning Thames tunnel financing

The Save Your Riverside action group has welcomed local MP Simon Hughes’s efforts to draw political and public attention to what it describes as “the very poor deal being offered water consumers and taxpayers in relation to funding the Thames Tideway Tunnel.”

At a recent Parliamentary briefing banker and infrastructure finance expert Martin Blaiklok, and the former head of Ofwat, the water regulator, Sir Ian Byatt, explained to MPs, Lords and others why what is being proposed is such bad news for the public interest.

In a statement, SYR said:

“The Government and Ofwat have failed to prevent the private monopoly supplier Thames Water from stripping assets previously owned by the public off its balance sheet, paying generous dividends to its shareholders, and doubling its debt to some £8 billion in the last five years.

“Far from earmarking funds over years for the tunnel project which has been known about for a decade and more, Thames Water has persuaded the government to set up a separate infrastructure provider to build, own and operate the tunnel and to change the law to allow the every UK taxpayer to be the financial long stop. “

In its response to the government consultation about the financing and construction of the proposed Thames Tideway Tunnel, SYR warned that “ the government’s solution risks giving control of the tunnel to an obscure offshore company beyond the reach of UK regulators, bent on maximising profit with insouciant disregard for water customers in the Thames area and the public interest."

"Defra has provided no evidence to support its claims that this approach would reduce risk to public financing, and deliver better value for money."

The meetings will be viewed with particular interest in the wake of recent widespread and serious flooding in the UK. Flooding could have a potentially disastrous impact on London and questions are now being asked about whether the proposed £4.9 billion could be better spent on a more sustainable and resilient solution to address the capital’s water problems.

The meetings once again also highlight the extent of stakeholder engagement about the project –taxpayers and customers' input is currently largely confined to how construction of the proposed tunnel should be implemented, not whether it was the right solution in the first place.