'Practically nothing’ could stop Lightlands Lane sewage problems, say Thames Water

Thames Water says ‘practically nothing’ could be done to stop sewage problems at Lightlands Lane in Cookham earlier this year.

The company apologised to Cookham residents in January after its pumping station in Lightlands Lane became ‘overwhelmed’ during major flooding, dubbed the worst in a decade.

At a meeting in Cookham last night, attended by more than 50 residents, a representative from Thames Water discussed the issues with the pumping station.

David Harding, Thames Water’s Customer and Stakeholder Manager for the Home Counties said:

“We had reports from some residents that they had restricted toilet use, some people had ingress [seepage] of sewage through manhole covers in things like attached garages etc.

“And yes, we’re very sympathetic to those people.

“But when the valley is underwater, that also means the sewers - which are in the ground - are also underwater and there’s nothing that practically can be done to make them operate as normal.”

Mr Harding said a key issue at Lightlands Lane was its power supply, which was delivered by an SSE substation.

During January’s flooding, Thames Water shut the pumping station down over worries with the substation - which was then underwater.   

Cookham residents have called for action to fix the pumping station’s problems, and particularly the problem with its electricity supply.

But Councillor Joshua Reynolds (Lib Dem, Furze Plat) said calls so far had ‘fallen on deaf ears’.

“Lots of residents have been sounding the alarm on the electricity supply for 10 years or more and obviously we got to this point in January,” he said.  

“What’s the plan going forward? Because it’s been falling on deaf ears.”

The electrical substation belonged to SSE which was not a Thames Water asset, said Mr Harding.

“We are upgrading the pumping station ourselves to make sure all our equipment is above this level of flood water,” he said.

“A lot was done post 2014 and since then we’ve had conversations with SSE about the substation but so far to no avail.”

Dick Scarff of the Cookham Society questioned why the station’s electronics had not been raised high enough following the 2014 floods.

Mr Harding replied: “We thought they were [raised high enough], they’re being raised again.”

Thames water were investigating means to make the pumping station more resilient, he said.

“What we can do is try and make the pumping station as resilient as possible,” said Mr Harding.

“So that when the water levels drain down and return to normal so it’s only wastewater [and not floodwater] in the sewers again.

“So, we can switch the pumping station back on without it having to wait for it to dry out and for equipment to be replaced.”