Thames Water has pledged £2.5 million on protecting Chalfont St. Peter from future sewer flooding along with plans for preventing future incidents
The village in Buckinghamshire has endured two major incidents of sewage floods this year; in February and October.
Both incidents lead to a main road in the village centre closing impacting trade.
The floods also had an environmental impact as they damaged the nearby River Misbourne; one of only 260 chalk streams in the world.
Residents had been demanding action from Thames Water since the initial floods.
Thames Water sent a letter to residents this month explaining the “range of engineering solutions” they are delivering.
These included plans to prevent groundwater and surface water entering the sewer as well as installing a micro-filtration system nearby to reduce impacts of spills to the River Misbourne.
Disappointingly, the letter fails to announce any improvements in the short-term and, in fact reveals that it could take “years to eliminate sewer flooding.”
The main road A413’s closure has been detrimental for businesses. “People can’t get in and they see that as a deterrent” says successful business owner Adele Kelly who owns a shop affected by road closures. “I’ve even had feedback from people saying, ‘it is very difficult to get in and I can’t be bothered.’”
Adele owned her clothing shop Adele Kelly through the pandemic. However, she has found the challenges due to sewage spills to be worse. “I had just transferred to home [when the pandemic hit] … and did my work there. However, I haven’t done that here.”
“It’s an old sewage system… there’s about another 42 places in the country that could do with the same help. But because we have put ourselves forward, done some good advertisement and moaned quite a lot we are top of the list… but lots of others need help.”
Despite the community’s successful campaign, some of the damage may be irreparable. “People form habits” explained Adele. This is since if people stop coming to shop due to road closures, they may not return even when the road is opened again.