THAMES Water has promised to put its hands in its pockets to restore the River Crane following a major sewage leak.

A spokesman for the firm this week said it accepted full responsibility for the incident, which devastated a seven-mile stretch of the river between Cranford and Isleworth, killing an estimated 3,000 fish.

"We're accepting responsibility, saying sorry and taking steps to put a plan together to put this right, which will obviously involve sticking our hand in our pocket. We're not waiting to be taken to court," he said.

Thames Water released a significant amount of raw sewage into the river after a valve jammed shut on Saturday, October 29, to prevent it backing up into Heathrow.

Executives from the company last Friday (November 4) met representatives from environmental groups including the Environment Agency, London Wildlife Trust, Thames Anglers' Conservancy and Friends of the River Crane Environment (FORCE) to discuss how to reverse the damage.

FORCE chairman Rob Gray said: "There seems to be a consensus it will take several years for the river to fully recover its ecological value.

"However, Thames Water said at the meeting that at the end of a five-year process, which it will financially support, the river will be in a better condition than before the accident happened. That's its pledge in principle and we need to make sure it happens in practice."

The incident bears many similarities to another environmental disaster in 2007, when Thames Water accidentally released bleach into the River Wandle, in south London.

The leak, during cleaning at a sewage works, kileld some 7,000 fish along a three-mile stretch of the river.

Thames Water admitted responsibility and pledged £500,000, on top of the £50,000 it was fined, towards restoring the river's ecosystem and compensating local angling groups.

Theo Pike, chairman of the Wandle Trust, said he had been impressed with the company's response and claimed the river was in a similar 'if not better' condition to that it had been in before the incident.

"In the grand scheme of things, Thames Water has gone well beyond what other water companies and industrial polluters normally do to put the environment back to where it was before the leak," he told the Chronicle.

The Environment Agency is investigating how the River Crane release was allowed to happen, and Thames Water is likely to face prosecution.

The London Wildlife Trust said staff and volunteers were 'deeply upset' by the damage done to local wildlife, in particular on Huckerby's Meadows, beside Heathrow, Crane Park Island and Isleworth Ait.