Sewage Action Group Update

If you have any queries related to this update, or wish to report any incident of concern, please feel free to contact your local SAGLUV representative:

• Andrew Gorton (Eastbury) villagewardens@eastbury.org
• Martyn Wright (East Garston) martynwright345@btinternet.com
• Louisa Freeman (Great Shefford) greatsheffordpc@hotmail.com

SAGLUV Update 12th November 2025

Martyn Wright comments that with groundwater levels very low and still dropping, and only average rainfall this autumn, it would be easy to get a bit complacent. But not SAGLUV, nor Thames Water!

The SAGLUV Team were recently invited to a progress review meeting with Thames Water’s Simon Brittain, Head of Thames Valley Waste Operations.

In short, it was a most encouraging update.

At our previous meeting with TW’s Regional Operations Team at the end of October, it was confirmed that all of the relining, repair, and sealing work that had been planned had now been completed, including 500m of relining in Weston that was urgently needed.

However, the purpose of this meeting was to update SAGLUV on TW’s more strategic view of how they plan to address the remaining sewerage issues of our part of the Lambourn Valley, and the wider catchment. Here are the key points:

Additional investment for resolving cases of internal sewer flooding in people’s properties

Over the next 5 years significant investment is planned to reduce response time by more than half. Current response time averages c11 hours, and the additional investment will reduce this to an average of 4 hours for more than 90% of the time.

To achieve this objective, TW are increasing their fleet with an additional 50 fully crewed, specialist vehicles, i.e. tankers, jetters etc.

This type of flooding generally occurs in the winter months, and further benefit from this investment will be gained during the summer, when the crewed vehicles will be used pro-actively for increased planned maintenance and sewer cleaning.

Catchment sewer lining

Some excellent news here: Whereas, to date, TW’s approach has been to identify groundwater infiltration leaks and reline that section to stop the leak. Then to wait for the next period of high groundwater, identify more leaks to repeat the exercise, and so on….

TW are now planning to carry out a pro-active programme of relining during 2026 to cover the stretches of pipework that have not already been relined in the recent and past programmes, whether ingress has been identified or not. This is a major step forward that will result in virtually all TW’s pipework in our area being relined.

The appointment of a specialist infiltration engineer is further evidence that TW is determined to crack the problem of groundwater infiltration which is the root of our problems.

Pumping Stations and Rising Mains

We previously reported that the rising main (main sewer pipe) that runs from Eastbury to East Garston is going to be replaced. That in itself is great news.

However, it may be even better than that. TW are currently investigating whether a pipeline can be laid from Eastbury Pumping Station to the rising main that runs from Lambourn to the Treatment Works. If this can be achieved, the rising main running from Eastbury to East Garston will be redundant, thereby reducing the volume of sewage in the system serving East Garston and Great Shefford. We eagerly await news on that development, but even if it is not possible, the current pipe will still be replaced anyway.

East Shefford Sewage Treatment Works

The results from the recent £14m upgrade of the ES STW continue to be very encouraging as TW are developing their understanding of the newly installed Actiflow plant, which is a ‘first of its kind’ application for wastewater treatment.

The results we quoted in our last report were taken in the winter when the plant was dealing with sewage that was hugely diluted with groundwater. The results below were recorded during the summer months when there was virtually no dilution, providing a much sterner test of the plant’s capabilities. This table shows the EA Permit limits with the actual levels recorded which are very positive:

The sewer work that has been completed, the further work that has been planned, and the STW upgrade, all lead us to believe that our objective of Clear Sewers and a Clean River, can actually be achieved.

Another serious point that Simon wanted to share with us was the issue of sewer blockages, and we feel it is important that this should be widely publicised. The following is an extract from the report that TW produced for us.

Facts and figures on blockages / wet wipes

Why do we need a ban on wet wipes containing plastics?

Environmental and consumer impact:

• Blockages made up of wet wipes are the leading cause of pollution incidents in the Thames Water region.
• 12.5% of all pollutions in 2024 were caused by paper/rag, with wet wipes the main component.
• Across 2024 and 2025 so far, 19.5% of all blockage-caused internal sewer floodings were caused by paper/rag blockages.

What Thames Water is doing:

• We remove an estimated 3.8 billion wet wipes from our network every year.
• We clear 75,000 blockages annually, costing £40.7m – a £200m cost for customers over the current five-year investment cycle (2025-2030).
• In partnership with the PLA (Port of London Authority) we worked to remove 5 million wet wipes from Wet Wipe Island in the River Thames in Hammersmith - equivalent to 12 double-decker buses.
• We cleared a 100-tonne - equivalent to 8 double-decker buses - wet wipe blockage in October 2025 from a sewer in Feltham, West London; taking over a month and requiring specialist teams equipped with gas monitors.

The message is clear! If you have to use them, don’t put them down the loo! We have responsibilities too.

And don’t be fooled by those marked “Flushable”. It’s true they will vanish from sight, but they don’t break down and the blocking effect is the same.

A further meeting with TW’s Operations Team will be held in the New Year, and another strategic level session is planned for the spring.

Thames Water are certainly demonstrating a continued commitment to working with SAGLUV, for which we are extremely grateful.

SAGLUV Update 23rd September 2025

Further to our recent report, here’s a very brief update on the autumn work being carried out on the sewerage networks by Thames Water.

• East Garston: The contractors “Onsite” have confirmed that the sealing of the 2 manholes has been completed. The remaining manhole to manhole lining work at the top end of Front Street has now been planned in to start this week Wednesday to Friday (24^th – 26^th September). This will mean road closures in that area for part of the time. Onsite have completed a letter drop to notify residents and have also spoken directly with customers whose access will be most impacted.
• Weston Village –The work in Weston began on 16^th September and is scheduled to be completed by the end of the month should all go well.
• Eastbury – TW are aware of the manholes that are causing an odour issue and are organising for these to be sealed. However, at the moment, priority is being given to the major sewer relining and infiltration repairs in other parts of the network, as detailed in this update. 

Wynshall Lane FLIP : to completely decouple this sewer flooding protection pump device, from any property / residential power supply, the Control Box is being relocated to a post on the Lane. Work is scheduled to be completed by 30th September. 

• Upper Lambourn – The manholes, with the backdrops that were identified as major infiltration points, have been authorised for repair and a traffic management permit has been applied for, TW are just waiting an update from the council of the approval for a road closure.

This really does look like good progress!

SAGLUV Update 7th September 2025

Martyn Wright reports:

Well, that glorious summer flew by!
So, time for another update, and you’ll be pleased to hear that it’s a positive one.

Our Spring Report detailed the improvements that had been made to the sewerage network, but also highlighted some other problem areas that had been found.
We recently met with Thames Water’s Regional Operations Team to review the latest progress on the necessary remedial work they have planned.
We don’t have exact dates and detail yet as these are being finalised with contractors, but we will be informed as soon as these plans are complete. However, the very positive headlines are as follows:

East Garston:

• Winter 24/25 summary:
  • Virtually trouble free, with no need for the ATAC filter unit to be switched on and only a minor short term spillage after heavy rainfall
  • However, it was touch and go with the sewer full with infiltration for a lot of the time
• Results of 2025 investigations:
  • Further groundwater infiltration was found in the network near Station Road and Front Street, and as a result, two manhole to manhole sections of pipe will be relined, a total of about 100m, and two manholes will be sealed, during this autumn. Some of the work is due to start imminently.
  • The ATAC unit will be installed at the Pumping Station again this winter on a “just-in-case” basis.

Eastbury:

• Winter 24/25 summary:
  • The 450m of relining and manhole sealing proved to be successful which, together with the control of river weed by the EA, resulted in no sewer flooding and no need for tankers as in the previous winter
• Results of 2025 investigations:
  • Nothing significant found and no further work is planned within the Eastbury network, other than the completed repair and modification of a problematic localised sewer flooding device in Wynshall Lane, and the possible sealing of a couple of reported smelly manholes
  • However, the really good news is that the complete rising main (main sewer pipe) that connects Eastbury Pumping Station to the East Garston sewer network, is being replaced with a new one. More information when the plans are finalised.

Great Shefford:

·        Winter 24/25 summary:

o   No spills identified and no tankers required.

o   The Great Shefford Flood Alleviation Scheme has been completed which should reduce the risk of groundwater-fed fluvial flooding from the Great Shefford stream alongside the Wantage Road. It is felt that this will also alleviate potential sewer flooding in those areas.

·        Results of 2025 investigations:

o   Nothing significant found and no further work planned

Weston:

• Winter 24/25 summary:
  • There was no remediation work carried out in 2024
  • There was significant sewer flooding throughout the winter with a constant tanker run deployed to keep it under control
• Results of 2025 investigations:
  • Very major groundwater infiltration was detected from a number of locations between Weston and the East Shefford Sewage Treatment Works
  • As a result, 500m of relining will be completed this autumn
  • There are further leakages suspected from some private drains which are also being investigated

East Shefford Sewage Treatment Works:

• Winter 24/25 summary:
  • The recently completed £14m upgrade has proved to be very successful in the improved treatment of the normal discharge that goes into the river
  • However, the STW still suffered with excessive groundwater flow leading to a long term overflow discharge of untreated sewage
• Results of 2025 investigations:
  • As explained in our last report, this overload was due partly to the Weston infiltration, but also partly due to the ATAC units not needing to be deployed, or at least the Lambourn one only for a short time. This put extra pressure on the STW.
  • The good news is that the further relining and sealing work being carried out this autumn in Weston and upstream villages, as detailed above, should have a major positive impact on the STW

Although Upper Lambourn and Lambourn are not strictly within SAGLUV’s remit, as Lambourn PC deal with their issues directly, Lambourn sewage network feeds directly into East Shefford Sewage Treatment Works, which is covered by SAGLUV. Therefore it is helpful to know what is going on at the top end of the Valley to see the full picture.

In Upper Lambourn, despite 1,450m of relining being completed and numerous manholes sealed in 2024, significant infiltration and sewer spillage was again experienced in 2024/25 and tankers needed to be deployed. However, on the positive side, the Lambourn ATAC filter unit was deployed for a shorter period of 6 weeks compared to 26 weeks in winter 2023/24. There were no major sewer issues in Lambourn, but there was at least one spillage event caused by a blockage of wet wipes and other unmentionables in the foul sewer network.

We understand that the 2025 surveys found three major faults in the network in Upper Lambourn, which were letting in large volumes of groundwater. Plans are now being made to repair them. In addition, other points of infiltration are suspected in Upper Lambourn, possibly including leaks in private drains. These will be fully investigated when groundwater conditions allow. The Lambourn ATAC unit will be installed, and ready for use again this winter, as a precautionary measure.

We in SAGLUV are cautiously optimistic that the works outlined in this report will get completed, which will take us a few steps further towards achieving our objective of “Clear sewers and a clean river”. It’s taking time, and no doubt further infiltration points will be found along the way when the groundwater levels make investigation possible, but we are already in a much better place than we were.

We’ll get there in the end. But it’s a bit like the old question ‘How do you eat an elephant?’ and the answer…. ‘One bite at a time!’