Jubilee River – yet another Taplow embankment failure
NOT A HAPPY NEW YEAR?
Happy New Year – but I think not because many people and authorities should be seriously concerned about yet another Jubilee River embankment failure. The adjacent image records the scoured embankment at Taplow after some emergency repairs.
Since the £100m Jubilee River was opened in 2002 there have been many bed, bank and control structural failures including those at Taplow Mill Leat, Taplow Flow Control Structure and bridge, Marsh Lane, Manor Farm Weir, Slough Weir, the Myrke Embankment and Black Potts Viaduct. Please note that since opening in 2002, the Jubilee River channel has never conveyed its design capacity of 215 cumecs due to sub-standard design and construction. As for the cost of Jubilee River operation, maintenance and repairs since 2002 – please feel free to ask the Environment Agency but be assured that it is us, the taxpayers, who pay for all of this.
So who should be concerned and why? Let’s start with the owners of the nice new houses in Laychequers Meadow, Taplow. These houses are a relatively recent addition to the area but the man-made embankment between the houses and the Jubilee River appears to be fragile and/or unstable and subject to scour and erosion. Repeated attempts to improve bank protection have failed, and I suspect that the removal of all the trees about ten years ago has exacerbated the problem.
Next to be worried – how about the insurance companies for the buildings adjacent to the failed embankment.
The residents of Maidenhead should be concerned because it appears to me that their flood alleviation channel is out of order until further notice.
Ironically this may be good news for the residents and householders living in the undefended villages downstream that have already been flooded four times this century.
The Environment Agency should be very concerned because their world-class, award winning Jubilee River is being degraded every time somebody operates the Taplow Control Structure and the channel (which was only opened in 2002) conveys flood-water.
The Environment Agency should be concerned about other flood alleviation schemes being designed now and with the potential to suffer from similar Jubilee River design issues – including the River Thames Scheme, the Datchet to Hythe End Flood Improvement Measures project and the Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme.
The Environment Agency should also be concerned about their application for a River Thames Scheme Development Consent Order. I have no doubt that the Planning Inspectorate will be interested in what’s going on upstream if/when the application gets submitted. That includes questions on (lack of) Thames dredging.
Finally – surely this fiasco has all the Hallmarks of Horizon, Grenfell, HS2 and the Blood Products Inquiry?
HNY
END