Following a very productive meeting last week between local residents, businesses, councillors, representatives of MaidaFloodAction and THAMES WATER at the Maida Vale Area Forum,
Thames Water has agreed to accept MaidaFloodAction's flood survey data.
Thames Water has agreed to accept MaidaFloodAction's flood survey data.
James Cross, Head of Customer Care at Thames Water, initially advised on the process residents should follow if flooded, but local people soon explained that these processes simply don't work; we have all followed them - some of us repeatedly - to no avail. James explained that TW sent out 700 flood forms after June's floods but received only 30 in reply; MFA pointed out that forms sent to top floor flats and homes vacated due to flood damage would not provide results and Cllr Ruth Bush added that in a midst of a flooded property crisis, form-filling is unlikely to be at the top of residents' agendas.
We explained that far from the floods being due to 'exceptional weather' affecting only 30 homes, MaidaFloodAction already has around 500 petition signatures (and counting!) calling on Thames Water to address the widespread problem and close to 100 flood survey responses (still counting!) that show the flooding is both widespread and frequent. We also asked why TW had previously refused to accept our flood survey data (when offered through our local MP Karen Buck); the three Thames representatives were very surprised by this and immediately agreed not only to accept our data but to meet with MaidaFloodAction early in December to review the results, TW's data collection processes and the various written responses received by residents affected by flood.
MaidaFloodAction is delighted with the outcome and we look forward to continuing the very positive discussions started with Thames Water.
Meanwhile - with apologies for repeating ourselves - if you or your neighbours haven't done so -
PLEASE COMPLETE THE FLOOD SURVEY and SIGN THE PETITION :-)
Now that Thames Water is listening, let's show them the extent of the problem!
Thank you all for your continued support - and special thanks to Cllr Paul Dimoldenberg for inviting Thames Water to the meeting.
Your MaidaFloodAction team
3 comments:
This is EXCELLENT news - the clear message is if you HAVE NOT registered your flood(s) with either Thames Water or MaidaFloodAction - it is essential that you do.
Thames Water CAN PREVENT this happening again - they just need more households to support their investment case.
How do you do this, i have been flooded 3 times now, but whenever i phone up to report it/complain, i get fobbed off and told its not their responsibility! I am obviously not getting through to the correct department.
Hi Anon (2),
How do we do this? Priority actions:(1)request Thames Flood Report Form, (2) Request WERM survey (see previous blog post for details) (3)COMPLETE THE MAIDA FLOOD SURVEY FORM on the right, if you haven't already done so.
We know that Thames doesn't have a very good record of collecting the data from their own flood forms, so fill out ours and you can be sure it will be counted AND delivered to Thames.
Stories like yours are the reason we formed the MaidaFloodAction campaign; what you describe unfortunately seems to be all too common at the moment.
With the data we've collected, we will be meeting with Thames Water on Dec 7th to review their flood reporting processes and responses, as well as their plans to prevent future flooding in the area.
Thanks for contributing,
Julia, MaidaFloodAction
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