FURIOUS residents have lambasted Thames Water after the water firm announced Fulham remains a preferred construction site for the 'Super Sewer' - despite more than 3,000 neighbours lodging their objections.
The results of the second 14-week consultation into the controversial 20-mile long underwater sewage tunnel revealed 3,168 residents living in or around Carnwath Road - earmarked as one of Thames Water's main construction sites - opposed the £4.1m scheme, which made up more than half of objections London-wide.
Residents say construction, which would take at least six years, will destroy the area through noise and pollution and accused Thames Water of ignoring their concerns.
Peterborough Road resident Anne Rosenberg said: "Thames Water's so-called consultation has been demonstrated to be utterly inadequate. The reaffirmation of their phase 2 plans, despite the overwhelming negative feedback and thousands of petitioned signatures shows that the consultation was a farce and needs to be redone."
Hammersmith & Fulham Council last week wrote to Boris Johnson to welcome his pledge to call for a review of the scheme and said it was 'ludicrous' of Thames Water to persevere with the project, which has attracted concern over cost to water customers.
Council leader-in-waiting Nick Botterill said: "The super sewer is a prime example of the failure of sustainable water management in the UK. Instead of capturing the fresh rainwater and using it productively, Thames Water is allowing it to flow into the sewer network where it mixes with sewage causing problems for the River Thames. Thames Water's solution is to charge customers £100 a year extra forever to raise billions of pounds to dig a massive concrete pipe.
"To compound this hair-brained approach, Thames Water is now completely ignoring the Mayor of London, the local council and thousands of residents by confirming the use of a tight knit residential area as their main sewer construction site."
Thames Water's Phil Stride said: "In the 18 months since we first began public consultation for the project, we have worked extremely hard to consult people potentially affected...
"Unfortunately, there are no easy or disruption-free options for building this much-needed piece of infrastructure, but we remain as determined as ever to reduce the impacts at the proposed sites as much as possible, whilst ensuring we deliver value for money."
The company, which says the tunnel will stop 39m tonnes entering the river, is scheduled to submit its finalised proposals for scrutiny by the Planning Inspectorate early next year. Main construction for the project is planned to begin in 2016.
