"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when once we practise to deceive.
Water bottles burying Bramley
Thames Water is certainly bottling it in Bramley! Who will be picking them up? Waverley Council.
BRAMLEY WATER OUTAGE – PLASTIC BOTTLE RECYCLING AND WATER STATIONS
Paul Follows.Leader of ‘Your Waverley.’
Having observed during the last big outage a significant increase in plastic bottles (for obvious reasons), which led to residents being swamped by it and then a large spike in waste collection issues –I have asked the environmental team at Waverley to deploy some additional plastic recycling points in Bramley for the duration of the Petrol/TW outage and the related works over the next few weeks.
Locations will be agreed upon shortly, but please post any suggestions that you feel might be most useful in the community.
I have also contacted the ward councillors and the parish council in Bramley to find out where it would make sense.
PS: Yes, the bottles are recyclable; it’s just not obvious). Please try to reduce the size of the bottles as much as possible before adding them to the bins.
At the request of residents, I have also asked TW to consider additional or replacement water distribution points IN ADVANCE of any serious highway works.
This morning, I wrote to Thames Water asking the following questions:
To Whom It May Concern,
Regarding the ongoing incident in Bramley, Surrey, I recognise that Thames Water is not the source of petrol leaks into the surrounding area and that legal duties also sit with the Environment Agency and the Surrey County Council Petroleum officer.
Thames Water has, however, been aware of the issue for some time, as demonstrated by the periodic and daily testing regimen being undertaken on the site.
Thames Water acknowledges the risk of contamination/infiltration of the plastic pipes (or else why undertake testing), with the consequent impacts on public health if such contamination occurs.
Can you explain why no proactive works/remediation of the pipes has been undertaken to remove/reduce the possible risk to public health? When the risk is known, can you explain why you waited for an incident rather than address the infrastructure immediately?
I also raise this because there has been an incident. The urgent work to replace the pipes, which will take several weeks, will now constitute a significant disruption to local traffic at no notice – rather than planned work that the community could have been aware of in advance.
The disruption to the water supply and its consequences could also have been prepared in advance. A lack of proactive infrastructure work has lost these opportunities.
Can you please reassure us that communication regarding the incident, the work, and the upcoming disruption will be as straightforward as possible?
Best regards,
Cllr Paul Follows
Leader, Waverley Borough Council
Update from Thames Water
I am writing to update you on our work in Bramley to deal with the contamination from the leak at the petrol filling station.
Over the course of the day, our engineers continued to expose the pipe we will be replacing over the coming weeks. Work on this will start in the coming days. Station Road will be closed from Tuesday.
We have worked with Surrey County Council and their Highways team to minimise the impact of this work on residents and the wider community. The final details are being finalised, and we will communicate them as soon as possible. We have also continued to flush the network.
The two bottled water stations at Bramley Community Library and Artington Park and Ride have again been open since 9 am and will remain so until 9 pm tonight. Footfall at both sites has remained low as we have delivered bottled water to all properties.
The three schools plan to open as usual for their pupils, supported by alternative water supplies, which we arrange using tankers.
The Do Not Drink notice
will remain in place, but because of these tankers, we anticipate being able to lift it for Gosden House and Bramley Oak Academy (formerly Wey Hill School) on Tuesday. StCatherine’ss already has this arrangement in place.
We continue to work closely with colleagues at Surrey County Council, Waverley Borough Council, UKHSA, Defra and Asda. All the partner agencies fully understand how concerning this is to the residents and are doing everything we can to get things back to normal.
We will update you again when we have more information.
Thanks Paul Follows for the information. I’m glad that (apart from the photo with rosette ) you have not used it to politically with remarks against Jeremy Hunt who has also been very active in contacting Thames water about the Bramley and other problems and failings
Thanks Paul Follows for the information. I’m glad that (apart from the photo with rosette ) you have not used it to politically with remarks against Jeremy Hunt who has also been very active in contacting Thames water about the Bramley and other problems and failings