Peckham Rye waterlogged this morning

[catg]

True, there was an awful lot of rain but the flooding seems worse than before all the work started!

[sunbob]

The flood alleviation works are to help avoid floods in surrounding streets, not in the park/common. To store more water in the area which is already the most absorbent. 

[malumbu]

Dulwich Park and Peckham Rye are always Waterlogged over late Autumn and winter.  Not sure why you need to point this out.  Southwark put in drainage on one of the areas where football is played, this was working well.  The issue is South London clay.  Part of our back garden gets waterlogged too.

There was also massive pools off water on the South Circus too 

 

[jazzer]

Lunchtime at the path opposite Harris Boys school, there where two Thames Water vans parked on the path running through the park, close to the gates with Peckham ye Park dealing with the huge puddle that had formed on the grass. (same spot/area to the right of the path, where it's been forming for the last couple of years)

[Earl Aelfheah]

The water companies don't do their job. The council (i.e. us) pay to remedy their underinvestment in drainage and sewerage infrastructure and we give up our open spaces for the purpose of mitigating the impact. Privatised profits, socialised costs.

[ianr]

It looks to me as if the water companies don't have responsibilities for land drainage generally.  See for example:

"In 1989 the Thames Water Authority was partly privatised, under the provisions of the Water Act 1989[3] with the water and sewage responsibilities transferring to the newly established publicly quoted company of Thames Water, and the regulatory, land drainage and navigation responsibilities transferring to the newly created National Rivers Authority which later became the Environment  Agency."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Water_Authority

 

[Earl Aelfheah]

They're not. But the work to build bunds which hold significant amounts of water in Dulwich and more recently Peckham Rye parks, was undertaken to mitigate the impacts of poor drainage and sewerage infrastructure (which was under invested in for years) causing flooding to properties. The latter is (as I understand it) the responsibility of the water companies.

I believe taxpayers have paid for the underinvestment in infrastructure by the water companies in two ways; firstly, by paying to have the changes made to the parks (I never got a clear answer from Renata on this forum when I asked, but think this is the case); and secondly through the loss of amenity those schemes inevitably create when those parks are waterlogged through the winter months.

As I said, privatised profits, socialised costs.

Edited 18 hours ago by Earl Aelfheah

[ianr]

But has it been established that poor sewerage infrastructure can be a cause of flooding, for which legal responsibility could then be rightly attributed to a water company?

Edited 18 hours ago by ianr
Rephrasing

[Earl Aelfheah]

Large parts of the drainage and sewage system are in dire need of upgrading and modernising, and are unable to cope. The privatised companies are not going to invest what is necessary in this work. So we pay to have our parks converted into surface water storage areas.

[jazzer]

At least they attended and seemed to be doing something, and something is better than nothing. 

[SpringTime]

Demolish your property, hack up any concrete and tarmac, sprinkle a load of seed. And move to a forest.

[Underhook]

Peckham Rye being waterlogged has nothing to do with Thames Water. It is not their responsibility 

[Earl Aelfheah]

13 hours ago, Underhook said:

Peckham Rye being waterlogged has nothing to do with Thames Water. It is not their responsibility 

It's not Thames Water's responsibility to keep Peckham Rye free of water, no. But the recent works designed to to hold water in the park: “capturing about 6 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of surface water and releasing it very slowly”, where undertaken to stop houses from flooding.

The increased risk of houses flooding is the result of a drainage and sewage system which are in dire need of upgrading / modernising, and unable to cope. And this, Thames Water are responsible for.

We are paying for their under investment (over many, many years) in the drainage and sewage system; In cash terms - funding the works to modify the park, holding more water in it to, and through the loss of amenity that follows from the park being waterlogged more frequently.

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Earl Aelfheah