The Thames Tunnel Seminar
On 19th January an audience of over 50 members
& guests enjoyed a presentation from Charlotte Cook,
Planning Support Co-ordinator for the Thames Tunnel, at an evening
hosted by at Maxwell Winward, Solicitors.
Charlotte talked to us about Thames Water's plan to build the
Thames Tunnel which will involve digging the deepest tunnel ever
constructed in London. The Thames Tunnel is a sewer the width
of three London buses which will run up to 20 miles from west to
east London up to 75 metres below ground broadly following the
route of the River Thames. The project, estimated to cost
£3.6 billion and take seven years to complete starting in
2013, will help to prevent sewage overflowing into the Thames at 34
Victorian overflow points.
We saw a short film showing the grim reality of what happens
when raw sewage overflows into the Thames and the effects that this
has for water quality, fish, rowers, canoeists, fisherman and other
users of the Thames. This is also in breach of the EU Urban
Waste Water Treatment Directive and therefore the problem needs to
be tackled. The problem is getting worse as the Victorian
sewers do not have the capacity to meet the demands of London's
increased population and therefore a solution needs to be
found.
At the moment, there is a consultation exercise being carried
out and there have been some changes made to the plans as a result
of that. Nevertheless, there seems no doubt that The Thames
Tunnel is the way in which to tackle this ever increasing
problem. Charlotte gave us a highly-informative presentation
about the project which left us in no doubt that this needs to be
progressed as soon as possible.
Lucy Thomas
Senior Associate Solicitor, Kingsley Napley LLP &
Event Organiser