To receive the above update.

Alice Keeping from Thames Water introduced herself to the Flood Liaison Group as she would be taking over from Cyril Mitkov. Alice explained she had been managing the Southern area and had a high level awareness of what had been going on in th area. Alice would be the Groups point of contact moving forward.

Matthew Peapell from Thames Water stated Thames Water still had a six month sewer programme in place and they had found an isolated blockage recently. Conversations had taken place about recycling the Bin it Don’t Block it campaign. A query had been raised regarding if any additional works on the structural performance of the sewer was required, Matthew had had a look at sewer cleaning but, no dig down was required. If there were any outstanding actions, he would take those forward.

Matthew Peapell confirmed the area of sewer clearing CCTV footage he wanted to view was a small area in the Westwood and Whyteladies Lane area. Thames Water had committed two areas for six monthly maintenance programmes which were on the High Street and Whyteladies Lane.

Martin Coker stated the Lightmans Lane Pumping Station got flooded and the electrics were not safe. He asked for the electrics to be raised higher. Matthew Peapell responded the issue of raising the electrics had been raised several times; he said Cyril Mitkov had been liaising with the business side of Thames Water to see what could be done and he understood it was decided Thames Water would not move the electrics. Simon Lavin, Flood Risk Manager said he the Group felt the panel should be moved above the floodline; doing that would not keep the station running during a flood but, it would stop the electrics being destroyed so when the flood water went away, the station could start running again. Matthew Peapell responded he would look into the reasons as to why the panel could not be moved and if he could get a more robust view on that so the item could be closed.

Ian Thompson said there was sewage in Datchet left during the 2014 flooding event. There was a main pumping station in Datchet which was served by a pumping system, however, the system was overwhelmed and the stated continued pumping but could not get the quantity of sewage away from the main station so the sewage was pumped back into flood water. Ian Thompson asked if the area flooded again, was there a shut off to prevent the sewage from entering the flood water. He added the other issue was with Datchet Common Brook; a survey was carried out of the ditch as Datchet Common Brook fed into the ditch during flooding but it needed to be controlled, Ian Thompson asked who the contact at Thames Water was to take that forward. Matthew Peapell confirmed he could take that forward and look into that.

Councillor Beer asked when Thames Water were going to enlarge the sewage capacity in Old Windsor. Alice Keeping responded that she was completing the handover from Cyril Mitkov in the week commencing 28 January 2019 so she would ask Cyril about that then. The Flood Risk Manager asked the Thames Water representatives to bring an update to the next Flood Liaison Group meeting.

v  Action – Alice Keeping and Matthew Peapell to bring an update on enlarging the sewage capacity at Old Windsor to the next Flood Liaison Group meeting.