Right beside the proposed super sewer site – and we’re talking less than 10ft – is a community of housing association homes that really illustrates the point behind social housing.

A proportion of this development was specifically designed for the disabled, with wider doors and wider hallways. Residents were selected on the basis of the psychological frustrations of disabled people and their carers needing a quiet, relaxing environment.

This week, I met Sonia Peppoli in her immaculate flat, the proud single mother of Gabriel, six, who was born with cerebral palsy. While Gabriel can crawl, he cannot talk, he cannot sit unaided, and he will never walk. He needs medication six times a day but, despite all this, he has the happy disposition of an under one-year old. He is utterly charming.

Gabriel’s mother is remarkable. She works part-time at Gabriel’s school – Jack Tizard – as well as volunteering to visit the elderly whenever she can. If she could, she would foster another cerebral palsy child but, at 40, this is unlikely.

Gabriel is particularly sensitive at night-time and, if disturbed, will grow rigid with tension. He also has a problem with dust and has been rushed to hospital due to shallow breathing. Seizures are not uncommon.

Sonia is in a catch-22 situation - should she put her son through seven years of drilling vibration, noise and dust day and night; or should she totally disrupt his life by moving?

www.fulhamrats.org

This week Thames Water is handing over its column to the Olympic gold medal-winning rower Andy Triggs Hodge...

As I regularly row on the River Thames, it’s probably no surprise to you that I back the Thames Tunnel.

Personally I am in no doubt the levels of sewage in the river is a big, and growing, problem.

From all too personal, close-up experience, I can testify that paddling through human faeces, tampons, condoms and other such nasties is no fun at all. The volumes involved are frightening.

It’s a problem that risks the health not just of rowers but river-users of all kinds, not to mention the devastation it causes to fish and other wildlife.

It's odd. If sewage spilled onto an area of public park, it would be immediately sealed off for health reasons so it could be cleaned up. But if sewage enters the river, which it does on an almost weekly basis, no-one bothers.

I'm grateful that something is finally being done to tackle this problem.

Some might say my support for tunnel is based on self-interest. Sure, I do have a personal interest. But there's more to it than that.

I see this as about protecting that London’s river not just for today but for future generations, making it something we can all be proud of rather than a great big overspill sewer for a 21st century city that should know better.

While I recognise, too, that building the Thames Tunnel will involve short-term pain and disruption for some, we need to progress it urgently.

Putting it off will only make the problem worse.