Flooding in Wraysbury and nearby

A personal message from Ewan Larcombe

This is a personal statement.  I am a Parish and Borough Councillor and also the founder of the National Flood Prevention Party.  I am an appointed representative to the Thames Regional Flood and Coastal Committee.

CAN YOU HELP ME PLEASE? 

I am a local councillor and my three villages have just been flooded for the FOURTH TIME THIS CENTURY.  Today there are places in Wraysbury where flood water is trapped and the drains are still not working because the pumping station has failed (yet again)

Although we live on flood plain we rarely flooded last century due the protection offered by attenuating features upstream.  A new flood alleviation scheme (a parallel channel that bypassed the Thames) was proposed by the National Rivers Authority in the 1980s and as Chair of Datchet Parish Council I gave evidence at the 1992 MWEFAS Planning Inquiry.

We were first flooded immediately after the construction and operation of the Jubilee River – a major element of the MWEFAS project that was designed and built by the Environment Agency to protect Windsor, Eton and Maidenhead.  The flood channel ran at only 2/3rds capacity and was severely damaged by high speed flood water flows.  The channel failed to meet the standards and there were legal proceedings regarding sub-standard design, construction and capacity issues.  Repair costs ran to many £m.

In January 2003 Environment Agency employees simply opened the Taplow Control Structure gates and dumped the flood water onto the undefended villages downstream.  Why do they repeatedly open the gates?  Because they are ‘following the operating procedure’.  In my opinion they flood us to demonstrate that their £100m MWEFAS project actually works and of course it is easier and cheaper to flood the undefended villages downstream.

We were flooded again in 2014 – not once but twice.

Today we are recovering from yet another flood event.  Fortunately the recent event (January 2024) was not quite as bad as the February 2014 event but homes and businesses have been flooded and some roads (including the A308 from the M25 J13 towards Windsor) closed for many days.

In my opinion the situation is going steadily from bad to worse. 

a) Climate change may be beyond our control but action has not been taken (by the Authorities) to combat the effects.

b) The Authorities continue to permit (and promote) ever more development on flood plain (Borough Local Plan – over 200 more properties in my area)

c) LAND DRAINAGE INFRASTRUCTURE MAINTENANCE. The Authorities are happy to build new flood alleviation schemes to move flood water elsewhere but simultaneously fail to maintain the existing land drainage infrastructure. The EA has not dredged the Thames since 1996 when they took over from NRA. The EA disposed of the dredgers and operators without consultation – closed the disposal sites – and did not comply with the recommendations of the 2004 Mechanisms of Flooding report into the 2003 flood event.

d) DEFICIENT LEGISLATION. The Floods and Water Management Act (2010) identifies authorities and allocates responsibility for the different types of flooding – but imposes NO DUTY on responsible authorities to take any action.

e) INEQUITABLE PARTNERSHIP FUNDING POLICY. The ‘partnership funding’ policy introduced in 2011 was used by RBWM, the EA and Surrey County Council in 2020 to remove Channel One from the River Thames Scheme without consultation or notice.

f) LACK OF ACTION AND SCRUTINY. Main River dredging appears to have ceased. The Wraysbury Drain (an ordinary watercourse that can cause flooding) has been blocked for years due as a result of unauthorised culverting.  Some money has been spent (about £150k wasted) but the channel is still blocked today.

AND THE BOTTOM LINE IS?

THIS IS A GEOPOLITICAL PROBLEM.  My parishioners have been abandoned and repeatedly failed by the authorities for decades.  They have paid the wages of people who do not keep their promises and who hide the truth. The Authorities repeatedly claim to be spending £billions on flood defence – but where is it going? The River Thames Scheme has already cost £70m with a forecast spend in excess of £500m.  In my opinion the Datchet to Hythe End Flood Improvement Measures project (that replaces the previously removed RTS Channel One) will be a sub-standard (i.e. cheap) replacement in terms of capacity.  The only realistic solution is to reinstate the previously developed and then removed RTS Channel One.

WHAT NOW?  The Parish Councils have previously confirmed that they will object to the NSIP DCO on the River Thames Scheme.  The mandatory pre-application consultation opens on 22/1/2024 for six weeks.  Unfortunately Datchet, Horton and Wraysbury have been omitted from this consultation.

A MESSAGE TO OLD WINDSOR, DATCHET, HORTON AND WRAYSBURY RESIDENTS    Please be assured that you will have an opportunity to give your views on the River Thames Scheme consultation and that further details on how to respond will be supplied as they become available.

END