New House
Temple Gardens
Staines-upon-Thames
Middlesex
TW18 3NQ
Home: 01784 453433
Thames Water
PO BOX 286
Swindon
SN38 2RA
Your Ref: 33157795
Re: Temple Gardens under flood conditions
Date: 17-March-2015
Dear Liliana,
Thank you for your reply, referenced above. It is clear from your response that I
have not managed to convey to you either the scale of the problem or the possible cause.
I have carried out some research which may help me further explain the problem.
Temple gardens between Chertsey Lane and Paddock house is serviced by a sewer system
that delivers sewage water to Chertsey Lane by natural fall pipe, about 30 houses benefited from
this sewer.
In 1987 the sewage system was extended from Paddock house down the Riverside road.
Unfortunately an acceptable fall could not be obtained to deliver into our sewer and the problem
was solved by installing a collector tank with pumps (primary and standby) operating via a sonic level
switch. This tank may be fitted with an overflow pipe to deliver sewage water to the adjacent river in
the unlikely event that both pumps would fail or suffer a power failure.
This system delivers sewage water under pump pressure to the chamber outside Paddock House
where it is expected to join the un-pumped Temple Gardens sewage pipe to Chertsey Lane.
We have observed that in conditions of high river levels /flooding, the pumped sewage water from
Riverside cannot flow away from the chamber that it is delivered to outside Paddock House and
spills out of the manhole cover onto the surrounding road, driveways and gardens etc.
I believe the reason that the water pumped into the chamber cannot flow away naturally in high
river level conditions, is because the sewage pipes in Chertsey lane are operating at full capacity and
indeed Temple Gardens Sewage system is backed up.
The questions I am asking are:
1. Where is water getting into the Riverside collector tank that requires continuous 24/7
operation of the pump under these conditions ( last year’s Jan/Feb flooding caused water to
overflow the sewage chamber day and night for almost 3 weeks).
2. Could the pumps be turned off automatically when the collector tank reaches an upper limit
or the pump operates continuously for a pre- determined time limit as a result of high river
levels with the expectation that an overflow pipe carries the water to the Thames?
It is unacceptable that this situation can be allowed to continue, especially in light of increasing
incidents of river flooding. Residents in Riverside are probably pleased that their sewage system
continues to operate and are not aware that it only operates only as far as Temple garden where it
exits the system.
I look forward to your reply and trust that this information will convince you that there is a problem
here that needs to be fully investigated and resolved.
Yours Sincerely
Sharyn Davies
Flood Committee Temple Gardens