Tag Archives: Thames Water

OFA Annual Public Meeting, 2011

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Our fourth Annual Public Meeting was held on 16 November 2011

We were delighted to welcome, as last year, Andrew Smith MP, County and City Councillor Susanna Pressel and City Councillor Colin Cook. A representative attended on behalf of Nicola Blackwood MP. Apologies were received from County Councillor Rodney Rose and City Councillor Oscar Van Nooijen. Last, but by no means least, about 75 members of the public came, an excellent attendance more than four years after the last flood.

The meeting began with the award of the sole OFA Flood Star of 2011 to Paul Kirkley. Paul works as an engineer for Oxford City. His professional skills, commitment, and cooperative way of working have been instrumental in turning ideas into practical flood relief projects which will help many residents escape the miseries of flooding.

2011 APM Paul Kirkley, Flood Star
Nick Hills presents Paul Kirkley (left) with the OFA Flood Star award

A review of the year included:
Nick Hills on the several measures now in place to protect Earl and Duke Streets, including the completion this year of the road hump at the north end of Earl Street (to be supplemented by a barrier on top during a flood) and a new route for flood water down Lamarsh Road, through Kingerlee’s land to the open meadows to the south. Nick also described the new flood culverts under Willow Walk installed this summer by the Environment Agency and originally suggested by OFA.

Andy Webber told us about the survey which he undertook of Castle Mill Stream. Following this survey the Environment Agency has cleared trees and debris from the channel at the northern end. We now await clearance under badly silted-up railway bridges, removal of sunken boats and a review of the operation of various weirs and sluices.

Paul Kirkley spoke about a possible scheme to reduce risk for residents on the east side of Duke Street, which in the process would further reduce risk for the whole Duke and Earl Street area.

Brian Durham gave an account of the problems of getting flood insurance and how a ‘DIY’ community flood risk assessment might help.

John Mastroddi told the meeting about developments at Munday’s bridge in Kennington, crucial to the drainage of the whole western flood plain. We have been campaigning about this for over four years. It now seems very likely that major improvements will be made here by Thames Water in the spring of 2012.

Richard Thurston spoke about Osney Island. Thames Water has added telemetry to the West Street Pumping station – so if their surface water pump fails, their control centre will receive immediate notification. The City Council’s scheme for property level flood protection in Bridge Street, Doyley Road and South Street (for which the funding is in place) is welcome news and should reassure many Islanders; finally, Thames Water has provided costs for the extension to the surface water drainage scheme (‘sump and pipe’) to relieve South Street and Bridge Street, but there is no funding as yet.

David Macdonald, local resident and senior hydrogeologist with the British Geological Survey, has been studying groundwater in our area for some years. He told us of a project he is leading which, if it is funded, will see Oxford have the UK’s first groundwater warning scheme, available to residents via the internet. OFA is supporting the application for funding of the scheme.

Peter Rawcliffe outlined the new central government funding arrangements for flood-related works. We discovered about three months ago that the Environment Agency had not applied for any money for Oxford under this new scheme. This came as a bombshell: so to remedy this appalling situation we have submitted suggestions to the EA for them to assess (this entails computer modelling) and then to apply the funding formula which tells one how much funding would be available. Proposals that score highly enough will be put forward for consideration by DEFRA’s Thames Regional Flood and Coastal Committee. Proposals have to be in by the summer and the EA is working to that target. We hope to be able to let you know preliminary results soon.

2011 APM Andrew Smith MP

Andrew Smith, MP for Oxford East (above), kindly thanked OFA for their hard work and success, and offered his continuing support.

Earl and Duke Streets

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Oriel Mews, connecting gullies to underground pumps
Oriel Mews, connecting gullies to underground pumps
Earl Street underground pumps

31 January 2010

Work has begun on the next stage to help Earl and Duke Streets, Oxford. Thames Water, in conjunction with Oxfordshire County Council, is connecting gullies in Earl Street into the existing underground pumps so flood water can be pumped away more quickly. This is being done by connecting the pump chamber to a chamber in Lamarsh Road (Oriel Mews), which is, in turn, to be connected to the main run of surface water gullies in Earl Street.

Site meeting, West Oxford Inter-Agency Working Party

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At this morning's meeting, from left to right: Nick Hills (OFA), Susanna Pressel (City and County Councillor), Keith Lead (Environment Agency), Paul Kirkley (Oxford City Council) and John Copley (Oxford City Council). Also present were Steve Smith (Oxford City Council) and (taking this photograph) Andy Webber (OFA).

At this morning’s meeting, from left to right: Nick Hills (OFA), Susanna Pressel (City and County Councillor), Keith Lead (Environment Agency), Paul Kirkley (Oxford City Council) and John Copley (Oxford City Council). Also present were Steve Smith (Oxford City Council) and (taking this photograph) Andy Webber (OFA).

7 December 2009

A site meeting this morning successfully settled the operational details for the new flood wall and associated sandbag wall at Bullstake Close. Who will monitor flooding at the wall and the criteria for maintaining or reducing the sandbag wall have been agreed.

Operation of the Penstock valves installed recently by Thames Water, to protect the drains of Earl and Duke Street from inundation from north of the Botley Road, was similarly considered and agreed.

Personnel from Oxford City Council will be given the necessary training for carrying out these operations.

A written plan will be prepared.

Earl and Duke Streets

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A Penstock valve
Duke Street, valves going in
The place marked ready for the valves in Earl Street

15 September 2009

The Earl Street/Duke Street Area Working Party is bearing fruit. This inter-agency group was established in response to a suggestion from OFA, quickly taken up by the EA and then taken forward by the agencies involved and OFA, led by John Copley of Oxford City.

Work has now begun. Engineers working for Thames Water are installing Penstock valves in each street. The Duke Street valve has already gone in and another is about to go in in Earl Street. The valves will be operated, if flooding threatens, to isolate the drains north of the Botley Road at this point from those in Earl and Duke Streets to the south, relieving the pressure on the drains there which are easily overwhelmed.

Further work, by Oxford City, will connect the rainwater gullies along both streets into the existing large underground pumps at the southern end, which pump into the meadow beyond.

Botley Road area – action

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Earl Street, Duke Street and Bulstake Close were badly affected by flooding in 2000, 2003 and 2007. In the past year four things have been done (or are about to be done) to help:

1.  Oxfordshire County Council has installed a culvert from the south end of Duke Street onto King George’s Meadow beyond.

2 . The footpath at the bottom of Earl Street has been recontoured to improve the flow of water into the alleyway leading to Duke Street.

3 . Clearance of Osney Ditch and the Bulstake and Seacourt Streams south of the Botley Road in Autumn / Winter 2008 by the EA.

4 . Improvements at Redbridge are due to be carried out in March 2009. This should benefit everyone upstream.

As discussed on the Background page the flooding in these streets is a tricky and complicated problem; there is no quick fix. OFA has put forward a number of suggestions over the past year; getting progress has been slow because of the complexity and interdependence of many factors, the need to deal with several agencies and the scale and cost of some potential remedies.
Setting up a dedicated group would, we hope, help achieve results and so we proposed to the EA and to the Oxford Area Flood Partnership (OAFP) that an Inter-Agency Working Party be set up to consider this area, produce solutions and implement them. This was formally agreed to at an OAFP meeting in January 2009. The first meeting should be held in February or early March 2009. Members of this group will come from the EA, Thames Water, Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council and OFA. Edit: held March 19th 2009.

OFA intends that this should be a main focus for action during 2009. We have a number of ideas which we believe merit consideration:

1.  Installation of a culvert from Earl Street to King George’s  meadow.

2.  Alteration of the drains so that water entering the drains north of the Botley Road does not end up in Duke and Earl Streets as it does at present. Thames Water and Oxford City have already begun to examine this.

3.  Reprofiling the Botley Road so that floodwater which at present flows across it into Earl and Duke Streets no longer does so. Instead it could be routed down Lamarsh Road and on via a (new) culvert through the site owned by Kingerlee and earmarked for development at the southern end. It would have to be certain that the commercial premises in Lamarsh Road would not be put at risk. And the agreement of Kingerlee would be essential.

4  The west bank of the Thames just north of the Botley Road is  low so that water flows out of the river onto the fields in large amounts whenever the river is full. This in turn erodes the banks further. It is not clear where this water then goes but it must be a possibility that it contributes to flooding in Earl and Duke Streets and Bullstake Close. More information is needed.

5  Willow Walk may act as a barrier to the movement of flood water downstream. This needs to be verified and the EA has agreed to see whether it already has relevant floodwater level data. Closely related is the poor state of the ditch along the eastern edge of Oatlands Park, with partial or total obstruction in several places. Alternative routes are already under active consideration by OFA and the City Council. The overall solution may be to reroute the ditch, to provide culverts under Willow Walk, or to do both.

Oxford City proposes to build a wall to protect Bullstake Close. The effect of this on Earl and Duke Streets is not fully clear and we have asked the EA to evaluate this, to ensure no worsening of flooding will result for those streets.