The results From Thursday's meeting with Thames Water may be disappointing to some. They have talked us through all the tests and excavations they did to prove that the water coming out of the road is not from leaky pipes. Cllr Upex and myself are expecting a timeline report outlining all this. It is suggested that this water is coming from a saturated high water table in the area. In lay terms it is a natural spring and therefore not a responsibility of Thames Water. This would suggest a far wider problem than just 2 roads in Forest Hill.

I had asked what can be done about the situation. The answers from my sources are only optimistic that the next few days will not have freezing temperatures and therefore ice should not be a problem.

Regarding the gritting, I did request it on Thursday but subsequently I learnt that this is ineffective remedy as running water will wash out any salt/grit. The only option available to the Council is to close off the road and affected area.

It has been suggested that this 'flooding' is responsibility of Environmental Agency. Well it is no surprise that they are also denying responsibility (could cuts to funding have anything to do with this, I wonder).

I would really like to speak to an expert on underground water to check some quotes: in particular the ones which say that nothing can be done since no one can predict where the water will emerge. Also, were there in the past some draining of this water done on industrial scale? So if anyone knows of someone who can shed some more light on this I would be grateful for the contact.

To me this issue invites a wider investigation and any help would be much appreciated.

This post was last modified: 10-02-2015 12:00 AM by Maja Hilton.