Agenda and minutes
Venue: Ms Teams
Media
No. | Item |
---|---|
Apologies Minutes: None were recevied. |
|
Apologies Minutes: Since the last meeting the Chairman had completed the following tasks: · Written to Thames Water (TW) and circulated their response. · The committee should consider when it would be the appropriate moment to write to OFWAT. · Taken part in discussions about how many Buckinghamshire Council (BC) councillors should be involved in this committee. · Brought Little Marlow parish councillors up to date on progress following the May 2021 election. · The chairman had recently updated the local Member of Parliament, Joy Morrissey. · It is planned to set up a Directory on the BC website to include all relevant correspondence between BC and TW, the EA and OFWAT.
|
|
Minutes from the previous meeting Minutes: RESOLVED Minutes from the meeting held 25 Match 2021 were AGREED as an accurate record.
|
|
Questions from the public PDF 347 KB Minutes: Several questions had been circulated to Thames Water (TW) ahead of the meeting. Full copies of the questions would be appended to these minutes. Mr A Scott answered from his prospective as the TW Regional Operations Manager. He was unable to comment fully on future strategy which was managed by a separate team.
In response to the written questions from Cllr Wilson and questions from the Chairman, Mr Overall and Mr Emmett the following responses were made by Mr Scott:-
1.Prevention - Investment in Capacity, Capability & Processes
2. Future proofing - 1000+ Houses and Climate Change
|
|
Thames Water report Minutes: In addition to the questions above the following points were discussed: · TW were working through the Compliance Assessment Reports (CAR) provided by the Environment Agency (EA) after recent incidents and had sent their official response to the EA. Copies of the TW responses would be sought and added to the committee directory. ACTION Ms Kenward/Mr Scott
|
|
Environment Agency Report Minutes: Ms L Bee, Environment Agency (EA), referred to the last 3 Compliance Assessment Reports (CAR) carried out by the EA. Copies of these forms would be shared and uploaded to the committee directory. ACTION Ms Outhwaite/Ms Kenward
1. March 2021 – arising from the equipment failure and subsequent sewage overflow. The investigation into the resilience was ongoing. 2. May 2021 – arising from breaches that occurred after the equipment was repaired. The EA had introduced 24/7 water monitoring and there had been no further breaches. Monitors were to be shortly removed for redeployment due to a limited number being available. Data would be shared and added to the committee directory. ACTION MS Bee/Ms Kenward 3. July 2021 – Still to be issued. Arising from geese damaging powerlines and the failure of generators to come online. Sewage overflow had not reached the Thames. The EA would be pushing for resilience to prevent issues reoccurring.
· There was a separate Enforcement Governance Group who would decide what action would be taken regarding these breaches once investigates were complete. The EA used a scale for consideration whether prosecution would take place. · Regarding timescales it was the investigation rather than the final decision that would take the most time and would be affected by EA resources. There was not a legislated timescale for a decision, but it was hoped a resolution could be made in the next few months. · Mr Overall asked if the July 2021 incident had caused sewage overflow into Spade Oak Lake. Ms Bee would seek feedback on this. ACTION Ms Bee · Mr Scott stated the TW monitoring had found no evidence of the overflow making its way into the local watercourse. |
|
Any other business Minutes: Mr Overall referred to reports he had received from Bucks Bird Club regarding the unexplained death of 20+ wild fowls and Egyptian Geese. DEFRA had been informed of possible disease risk. There had also been anecdotal evidence of fish deaths which had not been supported by the local fishing club. However, there was no reason to believe there was issues with health of the lake.
The Chairman invited TW and the EA to comment on a news story from the Bucks Free Press website where a local man claimed to have contracted giardia disease from swimming in the Thames. Mr Scott stated that TW did not recommend swimming in the Thames and could not comment on where the parasite came from. Ms Outhwaite stated the parasite could also be transmitted from animals and humans and the EA would only monitor areas of bathing water.
|
|
Date of next meeting Minutes: To be confirmed. Future meetings would be based on progress or if made necessary by further incidents.
|