Last Friday, I headed along the Thames in the Wycombe constituency to survey the floods. Riverside houses at the end of Ferry Lane in Medmenham were inundated but residents reported being well-prepared. There was some irritation with the Environment Agency, tempered with stoicism about the scale of recent rainfall.
I went on to Mill End where once again the sewage pumping station had failed.
Today, I returned to join residents in speaking to the BBC for tonight’s regional news. Raw sewage is again contaminating the area around people’s homes:
Thames Water have carried out repairs and issued a statement but my constituents are not satisfied and quite rightly. While we will all be forced to pay for the Thames super-sewer to protect London, it seems all-too-difficult to reach a permanent solution to the similar, relatively small scale, yet locally appalling problem in Mill End.
The BBC will report Mill End’s sewerage problems tonight at 18:30 on regional news. I’m looking forward to Thames Water’s long-term solution to this predictable problem.
