The unwelcome return of Thames Water

Thames Water are back.

Last week, Thames returned - with a bang - and have descended once again on Elgin Avenue. This time they have partially closed the road as they continue their Victorian replacement programme.

As local Councillors we do genuinely despair. We were not given any prior warning that the works were to begin and were only alerted by Randolph and Elgin residents who received a letter shortly before. The closure period seems particularly foolhardy. Elgin Parade businesses are now being hit with a double whammy - TfL screwing up the immediate area around the tube and Thames screwing up all of the left hand side of Parade.

It hasn't helped that all Thames seemed to do for the first five days was chalk up the road and then disappear. We raised this with Thames immediately and were given a rather vague answer about preparing the area and digging holes at either end which, to my untrained eye, didn't seem to align with what I'd walked past earlier that day. Nothing changes it seems.

The works started on 15 April and are due to last for five weeks.

We'll be watching closely over the next few weeks and have outlined in the strongest possible terms that Thames need to put their foot down and then get Elgin Avenue back to normal as soon as they have finished.

Lee