The River Thames Scheme has now spent over £100m on development and is looking for £18m to cover the 2026/27 financial year. The planned date for submission to the Planning Inspectorate is now 2028. My view is that having designated the project an NSIP, gaining the DCO could be a problem.
You may wish to know that yesterday (22/1/2026 – Thames RFCC virtual meeting) I voted against £18m for the River Thames Scheme Development project. The EA has already spent £100m over 15 years and not produced a coherent plan. I also think there is a problem with RTS partnership funding contribution due to Surrey re-organization but could not get a sensible answer.
This is approximately what I said at the meeting: I was first elected to Datchet Parish Council in mid-1986………that’s nearly 40 years ago. I have always lived locally and was first appointed to this Committee in 2019. In my opinion the RTS is our version of HS2 – with ever-increasing costs and extending timescales. Unfortunately RTS Channel One was removed without consultation in July 2020.
In my opinion we have not learned the lessons of MWEFAS and in particular the Jubilee River. This is the MWEFAS brochure dated 1991. I represented Datchet at the 1992 Planning Inquiry.
This is the Inspector’s report to the Minister:
Quote: ‘It would be very embarrassing to all concerned if the intended discharge capacity of the FRC was not achieved.
And goes on to say any deficiency in capacity would bring wide-spread – and justified – criticism’
The Inspector was spot on but nobody has been held accountable, apologised or rectified the issues. Since the MWEFAS opened in 2002 we have been flooded four times. I see this committee as oversight and scrutiny. Having already spent two decades and over £100m – I think the RTS project is at risk. My view is firstly that without Channel One the project is incoherent. Secondly I am concerned about the reality of any commitments to partnership funding contributions. Maybe Cllr Heath can help here. I still fail to understand how a project can reach this stage without being fully funded.
The £18m expenditure was agreed by the majority of the RFCC Members but I think the Members have ‘got the message’ that this project – in particular without Channel One – has problems and is at serious risk.