Aside from one or two heavy downpours in the Autumn/Winter period, the Valley has escaped very lightly in contrast with other areas of the country. As a result our workload has been relatively light, hurrah!

One continuing theme has been notifying TFB about the state of the ditches, as they frequently clog up and require cleaning. The ditch along Valley Road near the pumping station ha been under pressure this winter and at one point was so full it threatened to spill over onto the road.  TFB carried out work to cleared the ditch but the tunnel under the pumping station seems to be preventing the ditch to empty properly, so a request has been made to get this looked at. 

Just this last week, sewage was spotted spewing from an inspection cover in the field outside the pumping station and running down into the stream. Thankfully, Thames Water responded quickly to resolve this problem. The fact that the spillage was quickly stopped suggests this was due to a blockage rather than a symptom of an overloaded system.

 The DIG has also approached Thames Water on the matter as residents are also keen to know how long they should leave it before allowing children and dogs to play in the stream affected.

A new HVDIG website is currently being worked on and should be available in the coming weeks. Content will be broadly similar to the existing site, but it will have a fresh look and will allow greater potential for expansion and use of images etc.