Residents living in Lower Halstow, Upchurch and Lower Rainham will have seen tankers transporting sewerage from the wastewater pumping station at Lower Halstow to the Southern Water treatment works at Motney Hill, Rainham.
The Tankers have been required to transport the sewerage while works are carried out to repair burst sections of sewerage pipework that cross the marsh between Motney Hill, Rainham and Poot Lane, Upchurch.
Thank you to Barry Woodham at Southern Water and Vice Chairman of Lower Halstow Parish Council Martin Szabo for keeping residents updated on the progress of the works.
Below is the latest update received from southern Water:
We would like to take this opportunity to apologise for the disruption to the community while we work to repair the damaged section of pipework. We’re aware that the continued presence of tankers in Lower Haltow village will affect the community in different ways.
Immediate next steps
The site team have met with Natural England on 24th March as the damaged pipe is located in an area that is classified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
We have reached an agreement with Natural England to install an additional section of overland pipe, approximately 900m in length, which will bypass the damaged section of the pipe. Once this pipe is installed and operational, we can return Lower Halstow Wastewater Pumping Station (WPS) to normal operations and remove the need for tanker activity in the area.
We are currently working with landowners to agree access through their land and Lower Halstow Parish Council will receive a daily update until the work on site has been completed.
Community engagement
Our Stakeholder Manager, Barry Woodham, County Customer Manager, Kelly Robinson and Customer Case Lead, Emma Healing will be working together to ensure that weekly communications are sent to all residents, alongside the daily updates to Lower Halstow Parish Council.
Future resilience
We are looking closely at the future resilience of the pumped main and a project team are assessing the viable options and associated timescales of replacing or refurbishing the line from Lower Halstow to Motney Hill Wastewater Treatment Works. Any work that is undertaken will have a dedicated communications manager to ensure that all aspects of the long term project are updated to the community throughout.
We appreciate your feedback
We welcome any questions or concerns you may have so please feel free to contact:
Barry Woodham at: barry.woodham@southernwater.co.uk or
Emma Healing at: emma.healing@southernwater.co.uk
Yours faithfully
Andrew Morris - Project Manager
Southern Water
