It looks like the River Thames Scheme (i.e. the post 2020 two channel version) is about to be scrapped. I reckon about 18 years and £120m has gone on this project – and what have we got – not even outline business case approval. Worse still – nobody is accountable! I can be 100% certain that this project will continue to eat money but I cannot be certain that the project will ever be funded and approved.
Let’s just look at the time-line:
2003 – Flood event, 2008 – LTFRMS, 2014 – Flood event, 2015 – RTS announced, 2019 – Surrey commits to £230m PF contribution, 2020 – RTS1 removed, DHEFIM conceived – 2024 another consultation, 2026 – Surrey split into two and project not submitted for DCO.
This project is incoherent and suffering serious funding issues!!