Forum Topic

Diane Newman · 2/12/2012 9:57:00 AM

new.BrentfordTW8.com Communtity Forum Topic posting

Water Main - Brentford

Why is it that the Europen countries do not suffer so much?IS IT BECAUSE1) They are better organised2) Better road builders3) Better materials4) Have common sense?It would have been better after reparing the pipe, one way traffic lights would have been installed. But our brilliant workers dug up the whole road for tarmacking well knowing about the approching cold wearher. What for? For money.

Diane Newman ● 4926d82 Comments

Hello MattIt was approved by SDC on 8 March 2009.

Steve Taylor ● 4886d

Steve, just saw this in the middle of the thread. Can you help me by reminding me when it went to SDC or email the ctte report (I imagine you have it) to matt.harmer athounslow.gov.uk Thanks

Matt Harmer ● 4886d

Hi Matt - any info on this??"Hi Matt,Yes I am still waiting for details of what the S106 money for the Mogden Expansion application, is being spent on. I have asked Corinna Smart but she doesn't seem to know. There is / was a large sum of money which Thames allocated to ensure its application was approved, which somehow seems to have disappeared from the Council's radar.Residents have never been consulted or offered any opportunity to submit proposals for the spend so perhaps the Council is hoping that it can be refunded to its friends at Thames Water?? "

Steve Taylor ● 4886d

http://www.dft.gov.uk/news/press-releases/dft-press-20120316a/"Justine Greening said: “Anyone who has travelled on London’s roads knows how frustrating it is to find major routes being dug up in the middle of the rush hour or – even worse – lanes coned off when no one is even carrying out any work. “It’s not just inconvenient but expensive, costing the economy £4 billion a year. “I’m pleased the Mayor and TfL have got cracking in bringing forward proposals for a lane rental scheme which will bring real benefits to those travelling in the capital.”"I thought this had been in for years. Is there something new about the latest announcement ? I wonder if Hounslow wants to participate ?

Tim Henderson ● 4892d

The roadworks/temporary lights outside the Rose & Crown PH were certainly Thames Water. I drove past at least twice after 8am weekdays during the latter part of last week and never saw any contractors at work. Nor on Saturday. Clearly work was taking place at some point as when I ran past on Sunday morning the hole had been filled, new tarmac laid etc, and there seemed absolutely no reason why the temporary lights were still in place - even the notice said the works would be completed on 11/03/12 (i.e. Sunday). But at 10am yesterday the lights were still functioning. Finally I note they have gone this morning. Presumably no-one from Thames Water could be arsed to remove the signage or the lights on Sunday or Monday morning...

Adam Beamish ● 4896d

Steady on Steve you are in great danger of upsetting the inhabitants of Planet Traffic!

Vanessa Smith ● 4896d

"I am beginning to think that with petrol prices at an all time high the LBH have shares in Texaco and are doing this on purpose." No, its simply a case of LBH being quite useless when it comes to Street Management, planning and co-ordination / dealing with utilities companies.

Steve Taylor ● 4896d

Well, according to the Chronicle, it was Thames Water related and now, as a super Brucie Bonus, London Road is up again outside Morrisons for pavement widening / cycle path instillation, general littering opportunity or whatever the hell they are doing. 2 sets of temporary traffic lights within half of a mile on a road that was closed for 3 weeks, just last month, at the same time that the A4 is still having work done. I am beginning to think that with petrol prices at an all time high the LBH have shares in Texaco and are doing this on purpose.

Claire Peleschka ● 4896d

No idea if it's related to Thames Water or not (I doubt it actually) but London Road is up again. Temporary traffic lights in place for people sitting in a van and a hole in the road just outside the Coach & Horses.Great thing about this new bit of work on this constantly worked on road is that the temporary traffic lights have such a long cycle that it causes a huge backlog of traffic at Busch Corner that is blocking every route. You really couldn't make this up. Why couldn't whatever needs doing be done when the High St was closed and the amount of traffic using London Road was greatly reduced?I'm sure the reason will be some sort of emergency because planning of works has never been an issue in Brentford.

Claire Peleschka ● 4902d

Steve Taylor ● 4907d

"and open sewers running past the fronts of all the shacks"We can do better than that. We have a 300 acre open sewer in the middle of a densely populated residential area. Its called Mogden!

Steve Taylor ● 4907d

"so why don't the water companies invest their huge profits in starting on that?"Because Water Co's like Thames prefer to pay their directors and shareholders (investment banks) huge bonuses and dividends

Steve Taylor ● 4907d

De-salination is pretty energy intensive (which until we get renewables and nuclear fired up add to the CO2 / warming that is part of the problem).I guess re-use of grey-water would be a higher priority.

Tim Henderson ● 4907d

Incredible really that the vast majority of the surface of the Earth is water.De-salination has to be the way forward surely?

Keith Iddon ● 4907d

Certainly Southern Australia is always on drought alert, big notices everywhere - yet the manage not have stand pipes etc. When we were in Perth rwo years ago they hadn't had rain for nigh on 8 months - not so much as a drop, yet they weren't in a flat spin, like the powers that be here. If you ask me it will be just another excuse to put the charges up - although quite how higher charges produce more water I have no idea. It seems to be a good idea to have a national grid for water so why don't the water companies invest their huge profits in starting on that?

Vanessa Smith ● 4907d

I lived in Lagos in the early 80s in a "civilised" area near the Apapa Port. We had our water delivered by tanker to fill a large outdoor tank; the piped mains having broken down soon after the Brits left. This water was pumped up to a tank in the roof and came out of the taps a cloudy brown colour, so not for consumption!Drinking water had to be got separately and ideally then filtered even more through a good ceramic filter or reverse osmosis filter or some clever german plastic mobile device which I forget the name of but which was very efficient (and expensive).The other essential services all operated in a similar makeshift fashion; the electric supply was 3 phase and, working as an electrical engineer, I was horrified at the jumble of wires that constituted our fuseboard in a room which doubled as our workshop.The richer Nigerians and expats who made up the community increasingly needed more and more power for their air conditioners and the National Power company subsequently had to "juggle" the main fuses to provide power to those areas that paid the most, meaning that the majority of residents had to install generators at the back of their houses ready to kick in when the all to frequent power cuts came. They couldn't risk overloading the main supply lines or they might melt, then Lagos would be out of action.I worked in shanty towns mainly, notably a place called Ajegunle which translates as Jungle City, and though these places had illegal electricity supplies wired up to the NP company's poles, sometimes with crocodile clips, and open sewers running past the fronts of all the shacks built from VW packing cases (ah, home!!), you could always get a freezing cold bottle of Coca Cola! Hey, the perfect world.To be continued....

Ian Silver ● 4907d

I stayed in a small town in Spain for a couple of weeks years ago and in that part of the town you could have drinking water 12-4 in the afternoon.

Keith Iddon ● 4907d

The leak on Chiswick High Road has stopped. Just a big hole left to fill in.Also got the water bill for the next year yesterday.Thames Waters timing is impeccable.As for "only in this country" - I thought it was just a common phrase. A bit like "only in America". Who knows what all other countries are like?Although I should imagine countries where rainfall is less might attempt to conserve their water more.

Peter McGovern ● 4907d

When I cycled past at about 4pm the junction was dry !Has the threat of roadworks made it behave itself ? Or is it just a result of the drought ?

Tim Henderson ● 4907d

"Where emergency repairs by utilities are concerned the local council would have no authority"As Thames do not seem to be treating this as any sort of emergency I would have thought the Council could at least 'ask' Thames to do the work at night and not over a weekend. I wonder if any senior Council Officers are aware that ASDA and Tescos are at opposite ends of the road and that most working people have to do their weekly shopping over the weekends.

Steve Taylor ● 4908d

I am no supporter of rubbish planning and execution of public works(obviously!) but how do you all seem to know it's 'Only in this country'?

Keith Iddon ● 4908d

Where emergency repairs by utilities are concerned the local council would have no authority, only where there are planned, programmed works can they bring any influence to bear. So basically we're stuffed.

Vanessa Smith ● 4908d

Are there still roadworks at the roundabout where diverted traffic will be expected to go now they can't turn right? Temporary traffic lights were outside Twickenham rugby ground a couple of weeks ago and the roundabout was down to one lane.Hopefully this is now sorted so that the diversion can cope with the additional traffic.Given the competence I'm surprised they didn't delay for a further couple of weeks so that it would coincide with the next rugby match on the 17th

Claire Peleschka ● 4908d

Well there has been progress on the leak on the Chiswick High Road. Going home last night I spied some workmen. Fences have been erected. Not just around where the leak is but also around one of the 2 collapsed manhole covers. Coming in to work this morning it was still leaking. What do you expect - miracles? 4 weeks and counting.Of course the best way to deal with this is to impose a hose pipe ban!

Peter McGovern ● 4908d

Can we expect that this time they'll do a proper permanent repair or will be having this dialogue again in the not too distant future? From "Private Eye": 31bn Total capacity in litres of Bewl reservoir, which Southern Water is seeking a drought order to refill. 35bn litres of water lost last year by Southern Water through leaks. Wonder what the figures are for Thames???? Councils as a rule have no say over the utilities, but what happened to Boris's famous roadwork co-ordination plans? From my experience I don't think any utility company understands the word co-ordinate, it's all about the wonga.

Vanessa Smith ● 4908d

That's brains for you. More weekend traffic upheaval caused by Thames Water when residents are trying to get their children to sports, do their shopping etc etc. You couldn't make it up. Why they can't work from 8 or 9 pm to 6am during the week when there is little traffic is beyond belief. Does our Council not have any control over these things?

Steve Taylor ● 4908d

Thames Water will be carrying out essential works to repair the water main in Twickenham Road at its junction with Mogden Lane. The work will start at 8pm on Friday 2 March and it is expected to be completed by 6am on Monday 5 March. Due to the location of the sewer it will be necessary to ban the right-turn into and out of Mogden Lane for the duration of the works. Mogden Lane traffic wishing to turn right onto the A310 will instead be diverted via Rugby Road, Whitton Road, A316 Chertsey Road and A310 London Road/Twickenham Road. Twickenham Road traffic wishing to turn right into Mogden Lane will instead be diverted via A310 London Road, A316 London Road Roundabout to return and make a left turn into Mogden Lane.Chris Calvi-FreemanHead of TransportLondon Borugh of Hounslow

Chris Calvi-Freeman ● 4908d

I suppose even a badly-run, negligent company has its own sophisticated prioritisation system and now Vanessa has suggested stocking the feature with koi carp there will now need to be an urgent review to consider the implications of that and the number of points that need to be deducted before re-ranking all the Thames jobs to assign a new priority order.I suppose we have been lucky with the recent mild weather. The forecast frosts for next week might mean that a stall hiring ice skates (and providing hot chocolate ?) could be more attractive than the koi.

Tim Henderson ● 4908d

The High Court of Justice has shown Thames Water for what it is. A badly run, negligent company. Its a pity our Borough Council continues to bow and scrape to the managers of Thames and refuse to take them to task or hold them accountable. The person in charge of Street Management at the Council should have picked up the phone days ago and demanded action from Thames Water SENIOR management. Its a disgrace.

Steve Taylor ● 4908d

Tim, That leak was tweeted to T.W. by Kath Richardson for me on 13 February and they confirmed it had been received almost by return. So where did the notification go for 6 days?....................No wonder everything takes so bloody long, they are truly unbelievable

Vanessa Smith ● 4909d

I used fixmystreet to report the water feature on Monday and got this reply today :"I write with reference to your e-mail reporting a water leak at the junction of Mogden Lane and Twickenham Rd, Isleworth. I have spoken to Thames Water who are responsible for the maintenance of all water mains within the borough. They advised me that they were made aware of this report on 19th February and their engineers carried out a site inspection on 20th February.At this stage, they are in the process of raising the relevant works orders to carry out the necessary repairs to the mains in question. However, they were unable to provide a timescale as to when the repairs would be completed."10 days and counting......

Tim Henderson ● 4909d

Hallelujah! The leak in Haliburton Road has been turned off - hole dug - no workmen in evidence. Situation at junction of Mogden Lane/Twickenham Rd. as you were, all that is needed is a couple of ducks and some Koi carp and we'll have nice water feature!

Vanessa Smith ● 4909d

Hi Matt,Yes I am still waiting for details of what the S106 money for the Mogden Expansion application, is being spent on. I have asked Corinna Smart but she doesn't seem to know. There is / was a large sum of money which Thames allocated to ensure its application was approved, which somehow seems to have disappeared from the Council's radar. Residents have never been consulted or offered any opportunity to submit proposals for the spend so perhaps the Council is hoping that it can be refunded to its friends at Thames Water??

Steve Taylor ● 4913d

4.0 UNCOMMITTED MONIES IN THE CENTRAL HOUNSLOW AREA4.1 Table 1 summarises the uncommitted S106 monies by the spend category and therelated scheme numbers in the Central Hounslow Area. A more detailed breakdown ofthe available monies is provided in Appendix 1.Table 1: All Uncommitted FundsSpend Category Uncommitted Monies Scheme nos.Amenity Space £34,354.00 291, 305, 325, 378,383.Community Facilities £64,554.96 216.Cycling Provision £10,000.00 286.Environmental Improvements £296,655.77 216, 269, 280, 305, 308, 315,326, 327, 355, 362, 367.Highways £97,480.19 286, 291, 297, 362.Off site amenity space £33,641.85 329, 370.Open Space & parks £176,000.00 94, 216, 286, 361.Street Tree Planting £1,500.00 378.Traffic & Parking/ CPZs £451,968.65 216, 308, 311, 318, 319, 326,357, 364, 367.Various £4,896.00 94, 286.TOTAL £1,171,051.42

Steve Taylor ● 4913d

Paulyou say'In my time as a councillor I found hundreds of thousands of pounds of unspent monies for Isleworth and even for projects in the Syon Ward which were at the end of their time limit and would have been lost if I and my colleagues had not been constantly on their backThis matter was brought to the attention of both Audit and Scrutiny but nothing changes'As a member of the Audit Committee with amongst others Cllr C. Andrews and Dakers we reviewed I recall as to whether any S 106 funding had been returned to the provider beacause of any tardiness by LBH.We found no evidence to confirm that suggestion.We did though establish that some S 106 funds had been returned because planning schemes had been aborted or for related reasons.I dont recall Scrutiny dealing with this subject but don't of course, challenge your recall. Their brief is very broad.John

John Todd ● 4913d

Exactly Sarah.

Vanessa Smith ● 4915d

The other worry is how much of the sub surface will the water undermine?

Sarah Felstead ● 4915d

Both the leaks that were reported to Thames Water round here are still merrily leaking! I also know that a Chiswick resident has reported the one in the High Rd. there. The local ones have both been going now for approximately three weeks, no wonder we're facing drought conditions! It beggars belief it really does.

Vanessa Smith ● 4915d

I always report such problems to Fix My Street. The local authority will then pass the reports onto Thames Water.http://www.fixmystreet.com/JL/

Jim Linwood ● 4915d

Steve Taylor ● 4915d

I have to agree with Mr Sibley. For the last 2 weeks there has been water gushing out of a water main on the Chiswick High Road outside Evans Cycles. On Monday morning, which was very cold, the puddles had frozen over. Turning in to Chiswick Road I lost control of my bike and slid on my backside right across it. Luckily for me nothing was coming the other way and I only suffered grazes and bruises to my shins and a sore shoulder.That afternoon I decided to telephone Thames Water and report the leak - although I was pretty sure they'd already know about it. On their website there is a live update of all their problem spots. It wasn't on there and indeed still isn't! It took me 2 attempts and a full hour to get through on their Leak Line. No wonder, thought I, that nobody has reported it. But apparently they have and TW know all about it. The reason they don't update their website is because they want to see how many people are affected by the leak before they do anything!Maybe if Thames Water actually employed people to fix the leaks and to answer the phone when people try and report it then we wouldn't be looking at hose pipe bans this summer!The fact they have a monopoly on a commodity that we all need means it's hardly surprising that they make huge profits!I'm thinking of starting a company called London Air and charging you all for breathing it!Apologies for all the exclamation marks - but they do make me rather mad.

Peter McGovern ● 4915d

But Thames Water do invest heavily.....in their share holders.

Andrew Sibley ● 4917d

It really is incredible that there are articles in newspapers warning of water shortages coming when the better weather arrives, even Dodgy Dave's getting in on the action holding talks. Here's a really good idea - do something about all the bloody leaks, I have reported two in the last week (with the help of Kath on this Forum) and my son reckons there are at least half a dozen he's spotted not too far from here. Whilst appreciating that the bad weather has probably aggravated the situation - the Winter comes at this time every year - so why the hell isn't Thames Water ready to do the repairs quicker? We keep being told that the water bills go up because of all the investment they're making - yeh right!

Vanessa Smith ● 4918d

Preceisely my point Sarah. Everybody wanted to do something yet nobody was in a position to do so. That is what needs to change.

Phil Andrews ● 4920d

Your witness is beautifully written as usual, Phil. As a tax payer my witness is very simple.Nothing I suggested nor I heard others suggesting which included neighbours, resident association members, Councillors, Ann Keen and the prospective MP’s at the time Andrew Dakers and Mary Macleod, was anything other than a reasonable expectation of what should already have been done as a part of the job.

Sarah Felstead ● 4920d

I think there is a very strong link to Thames Water S106 matters and the all too often burst water mains as this company know that with their speicial and cosy relationship with Senior Officers at Hounscil Council they are basically free to do what they wish in this Borough knowing that these same Officers will never put any real pressuse on themI can guarantee that when the next mains pipe bursts we will still hear yet again the same old tired lines about how the Council is again very unhappy but its not Thames Waters fault etc blah blah blah and the Council is doing all it can....This attitude of course stems from the very top at the Council and until he is gone it will never change

Paul Fisher ● 4921d

S106......Nobody seems prepared to answer why these conditions are relevant to a burst water main.Typical though.

Ian Silver ● 4921d

SarahI know it always sounds slghtly pathetic to say "what if", but I do honestly believe that had the general election not intervened and the community councillors had held Isleworth and Syon wards, with all else being equal, you would have witnessed truly massive changes in the mentality of our local authority and the balance of power between elected members and chief officers. I am sure the ICG would have forced this issue, probably in the face of much wailing and gnashing of teeth I grant you, as a central plank of any coalition agreement.To be truthful it would have cost the taxpayers millions but it would have been worth it to have had the authority functioning in a way that recognised the primacy of the community and the democratic principle that is supposed to underpin local government, indeed all government, in this country.The current administration is, I believe, making some changes and they would appear to be a movement in the right direction. I feel the councillors we have in this part of the borough are making as good a fist of it as they possibly could under the circumstances in which they operate, and I wish them well. However they are inevitably slaves to the party machinery and could never, with the best of intentions, expect to bring about the root and branch changes that community councillors, answerable only to their own public, would have done.I believe certain personnel will be leaving the organisation and that in my view could not have happened too soon. But let's see what comes in place of the old set-up before we break out the balloons and the party hats.

Phil Andrews ● 4922d

The bottom line is -What are we running, with Public money?My experience from the pavement fiasco was that I knew internal people were laughing at me (openly, on the phone, as well) and mocking Councillors and their position. It simply seemed that they had no intention of doing anything other than what they wanted to.A great deal of time effort and goodwill was put in with tours and time and suggestions for huge costs being saved or recouped – and none of it has ever appeared to be followed through.Goodwill is an essential part of our community life and not to be underrated or mocked.Phil, you are right to say ‘the excellent Liberal Democrat member Andrew Dakers’ as he spent considerable time in meetings with internals following his tour.Anyone with any common sense could and did make simple suggestions which would save hurt injury and money yet it seemed that there was neither will within nor the right person within, to make it work.To this day I do not understand how a political set up such as a Council authority could make such a dogs dinner of managing Community money for this issue.Politics was seemingly getting in the way of getting the job done but only because the people doing the job were being allowed to let this happen. Mal administration? fraud? or we have to just accept this is the way it is, certainly there is no accountability.

Sarah Felstead ● 4922d

The bottom line is they don't want communities to have it. Even though it is not their money and cannot be spent anywhere else they move Heaven and Earth to create obstacles.The reason is that money is one of the key components of community empowerment, and the Environment Department at LBH has been almost pathologically obstructive towards any initiative that has threatened to help empower our communities.During the administration of which Paul and I were part there existed a permanent state of open warfare between the Department and the community councillors. That we received no assistance in this battle from our coalition partners, and sometimes indeed opposition, was the primary cause of bad feeling in what was otherwise a good and sometimes quite productive relationship.At Area Committee on which, usually working in alliance with the excellent Liberal Democrat member Andrew Dakers, we held a majority, Environment would more often than not fail to send along officers that we had requested attend, or send the wrong officers, or send the right officer but without the information to make his or her presence worthwhile. This was the rule rather than the exception.Chief officers even wanted to have the Secretary of The Isleworth Society branded a "vexatious complainant", which would have resulted in them being able to ignore all correspondence from her (not that they didn't on many occasions anyway). We only found out about this from other officers who thankfully were feeding us information about what was going on.On the Worton estate there is, as Paul says, £419k just waiting to be injected into community initiatives and we have held public meetings to discuss how to spend it, but to date it has not been released. At one stage a proposal was mooted to use it to offset service charges incurred by tenants as a one-off, which would have the convenient effect of being welcomed by some members of the community who are struggling to make ends meet whilst having no generic empowering benefit for the community itself. At the same time it would help them pull the rug from under the feet of the residents' association. They are clearly still at it now.And don't get me started on Mogden!

Phil Andrews ● 4922d

You would think so Sarah but for whatever reason a few of our esteemed officers at the Civic Centre give the impression that they know best and anyone who requests information is a pest and will do their utmost to delay itIn my time as a councillor I found hundreds of thousands of pounds of unspent monies for Isleworth and even for projects in the Syon Ward which were at the end of their time limit and would have been lost if I and my colleagues had not been constantly on their backThis matter was brought to the attention of both Audit and Scrutiny but nothing changed

Paul Fisher ● 4922d

Hi MattWell for a start there is £419k that has not been spent for I think 12 years now on the Worton Estate in Isleworth and last year I requested a FOI on this matter as Hounslow Council Officer Barbara Perry who was/is in charge of this particular one completely ignored my numerous e-mails etc for nearly three years until I took it furtherI will dig out all the other ones Matt and publish them on here or forward them to you directly but from communictaions I have seen the whole dept responsible for S106 stocktakes and accountable for bringing the potential spend to be allocated by cllrs is still a complete shambles

Paul Fisher ● 4922d

Passed through the High Street at 10pm...so the road is open.And all the diversion signs have been removed too.. except the bus ones!

Jim Lawes ● 4922d

This is where my head starts spinning. Why oh why would either you, Matt or Paul or any other Councillors or members of the public have to ask or seek out an audit trail for money awarded to the Community?Surely the money is detailed on one central accounting index and reviewed and followed through so that it is spent wisely, and timeously?No? Well I suppose that is too simple.

Sarah Felstead ● 4923d

Hi Paul. Re the s106, can you let me know of any unspent/unallocated sums that you are aware of, am happy to chase.Matt

Matt Harmer ● 4923d

The most disturbing part about S106 agreements in Hounslow is the hundreds of thousands of pounds in the Brentford and Isleworth area that are never actually claimed by the Council within the agreed timescale and so the developer ends up not paying a money at allOf course the Enviroment Dept keep this fact extremely quiet that they and their staff are even to this day losing out on money they could be using to improve the lives of residents and unfortunately the local cllrs seem to be out of their depth on S106 matters

Paul Fisher ● 4923d

Just going back to Phil's comments, I've never personally seen/experienced Officers or Councillors negotiating with a client about the exact content of S106 contributions at a committee meeting, although it isn't unusual for Councillors to ask applicants/agents during a committee meeting why they won't pay a particular contribution or are offering less than the Council's Planning Obligations Strategy would usually require. Furthermore, I have many times myself been involved in negotiations regarding such contributions at meetings with Officers during the determination of applications, and that is entirely 'normal', especially in the current financial climate.

Adam Beamish ● 4923d

You've lost me

Ian Silver ● 4923d

To be fair Diane I don't think London Road was widened just for a bus lane, there were also improvements for cyclists and pedestrians. At the time I scoffed at the bus lane idea (especially the 24h operation), but personally I now think it has improve this stretch of London Road for all users.And I don't think widening the road or any associated implications (if there are any - are you suggesting that as a result of it we have more HGV's using London Road ?) is in any way linked to the water main problems that have been experienced in recent years.As for the temporary traffic light/single lane idea until the works are completed, in theory that sounds fine, but in reality I seriously doubt it could be implemented to meet all the relevant legal/safety requirements etc. I'd rather have a full closure for a shorter period than a partial closure for a longer period.

Adam Beamish ● 4923d

No, they are the responsibility of Thames Water.

Vanessa Smith ● 4923d

This is the burst water main at the coach and horses pub in isleworth, on the london road, just past busch corner.

Diane Newman ● 4923d

Has anybody noticed that since the london road has been widened from busch corner to brentford bridge, all for a bus lane, that we have had three burst wather main blow outs between the coach and horses pub and the brentford bridge. What will happen when british waterways start to build their 700+ flats in commerce road? Will they still be using barges or build a military style bridge over the canal at the end of commerce road and coming out near the butts?

Diane Newman ● 4923d

If you look at the following photos, you can see that there is enough room to put one way tempory traffic lights, as the hole is more towards O'Brians public house. The futre tenders should include ''Only contractors with common sense need apply''

Diane Newman ● 4923d

Surely they don't apply to maintenance of the water mains?

Ian Silver ● 4924d

S106s are legal agreements and are what a developer settles with the planning authority to pay if they are granted planning permission for a development. Generally they are a sum of money to ameliorate any effects locally as a result of the development, such as a contribution to road works because of extra traffic, or a contribution to education for pressure on local schools, or towards community projects such as St. Johns. That's the theory anyway.

Vanessa Smith ● 4924d

Sorry to but in, but what is an S106 condition?I thought this might save me googling it.....

Ian Silver ● 4924d

ChrisHow many times have you attended a planning meeting at which officers have repeatedly asked an applicant which S106 conditions they would be prepared to accept before recommending them?In my case the answer is only one, and guess who was the applicant?I still have it on DVD, I reckon it will be a collectors' item one day.

Phil Andrews ● 4924d

With all respect Chris I have seen many times at first hand how Hounslow Council are simply laughed at by those at Thames Water despite all the tough words that come from the Civic Centre

Paul Fisher ● 4924d

Not at all Paul - just stating the facts. The burst water main blew out the whole carriageway.Our engineers have chased Thames relentlessly to get our highway reopened.

Chris Calvi-Freeman ● 4924d

And yet more excuses from Hounslow Council who have a love affair with Thames Water

Paul Fisher ● 4924d

Thanks Kath - well at least they know - now all they have to do is repair them.

Vanessa Smith ● 4924d

So they've acknowledged the acknowledgment lol

Claire Peleschka ● 4924d

I've reported them and they've acknowledged taking notice.

Kath Richardson ● 4925d

I was in brentford this morning at 10.30 and guess what? not a soul to be seen working. I don't thank the road will be open on wednesday, wrong type of weather, its to cold for laying tarmac?

Diane Newman ● 4925d

Thanks Kath - No. 1 junction Northcote Rd./Haliburton Rd. technically this is in Twickenham but it is just the other side of the River Crane near where I live. Junction Mogden Lane/Twickenham Rd yet again!

Vanessa Smith ● 4925d

If you would like to send me the details I'll tweet them a leak. They do respond to them.

Kath Richardson ● 4925d

Have now given up trying to reach anyone human at Thames Water, decided that as I just reached a certain age yesterday, life is infinitely too short to bugger about with the idiots who run things there................

Vanessa Smith ● 4925d

My husband was in Brentford this morning at almost 8.30. and guess what? Not a soul to be seen working, no wonder everything takes so long. I am at present sitting on the 'phone in an effort to contact the living at Thames Water trying to report two water leaks around here I have spotted, you can't e-mail, they have kept me hanging on for over seven minutes so far - but you can 'tweet a leak' - really useful that! Oh - and their website is useless, Grrrrrrrrrrrrr

Vanessa Smith ● 4925d

Is the road likely to reopen on Wednesday as planned?

Sarah Sharp ● 4925d

In fact virtually the whole width of the road was destroyed when the main burst. It wasn’t a case of digging up more than necessary for resurfacing. As soon as the water was turned off there was a discussion about putting in a traffic contra-flow, but there simply wasn’t room for this.

Chris Calvi-Freeman ● 4925d

Don't blame the workers Dianne.It is the btrilliant and sometimes self serving management structure behind them that tells them what to do. It sometimes appears that they have contempt for the public for some reason and this festers contempt back from the public. I'm sure that on the continent people also scratch their heads about what some public works are about and why they take so long.For a country that invented tarmac,trains and railways,iron ships etc. and was the world leader by some distance in civil engineering and sanitation in the 19th and early 20th centuries,we seem to have lost the plot completely.It's a shame Fred Dibnah isn't still around to offer advice.

Keith Iddon ● 4926d