£1.6m scheme to stop the flood misery (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

£1.6m scheme to stop the flood misery

11:49am Friday 18th January 2008 in Swindon By Ben Perrin

PLANS to create a £1.6m flood alleviation scheme have received a mixed reception from homeowners.

Thames Water presented plans to protect Peregrine Close at a public meeting at Coleview Community Centre yesterday.

The Covingham street was badly affected by last July's floods, which saw most residents forced to abandon their homes.

A private foul water sewer pipe will be abandoned in favour of two new pipes that will run under Peregrine Close towards a proposed new sewage pumping station.

Land would have to be purchased from Swindon Council to build the water compound on a site just beyond the street entrance.

Planning permission would have to be sought before work can start.

A storm chamber, measuring 3ft by 524ft would be placed directly between Covingham Drive and the River Cole, storing up to 700 cubic metres of excess sewage water.

The chamber would then be opened to drain away when weather conditions have eased.

But consent will be needed from every home in Peregrine Close before the plans get the go ahead.

Matthew Thompson, of Thames Water, said: "We are working with the council and the Environment Agency to alleviate foul water flooding specifically in Peregrine Close.

"We would urge all residents to report flooding to us so we can flag up problematic areas."

It is hoped plans, which would take six months, will be submitted to Swindon Council this summer with work due to begin at the end of the year.

But residents were not convinced by the plans.

"All this will serve to do is that it will stop unmentionables floating around in houses and it will just be water instead," said 63-year-old John Payne who has just moved back into his Peregrine Close property.

"The house was filled with two feet of flood water in July and we have never seen anything like this since we moved to the house when it was built in the early 1970s.

"I still don't think we have been given any real answers."

Fellow neighbour Samantha Finny said: "I really hope this will ease the heartache we have suffered.

"It has been horrendous, so anything to improve the situation has to be better than nothing."

Meanwhile Alan Frost, 71, from Welford Close, Coleview, said: "These plans may only make a difference to one small part of Covingham but what about everyone else?"