Story by Charlotte Lillywhite and Rory Poulter

More than 21,000 people have objected to a scheme by Thames Water that threatens to 'destroy' the Ham Lands nature reserve and local parks.

The troubled water giant has drawn up a scheme that would involve digging a tunnel along a 15km route from the Mogden sewage works to the Thames, upstream of Teddington Lock.

The tunnel would be used to dump treated effluent into the Thames, which has outraged locals and the borough's MPs who fear it will harm river life.

New revelations about the tunnel scheme, which will involve digging large access shafts in sensitive locations along its route, has triggered new outrage.

The troubled water giant has drawn up a scheme that would involve digging a tunnel along a 15km route from the Mogden sewage works to the Thames, upstream of Teddington Lock.

The tunnel construction would involve many thousands of HGV movements and include the digging of at least six shafts.

The first would be at the Northcote Avenue Recreation Ground, alongside the River Crane between Isleworth and Twickenham, which residents have been working to turn into a nature reserve.

The second would be in or close to Moormead Park in St Margarets, which has a children's playground, tennis courts and is earmarked for a new community building and café.

The third would be on the banks of the Thames close to the historic Ham House, which is a National Trust property.

The tunnel would be used to dump treated effluent into the Thames, which has outraged locals and the borough's MPs who fear it will harm river life.

There would be three shafts in the Ham Lands nature reserve, which run alongside the Thames, with the tunnel discharging the treated sewer water into the Thames via a fenced concrete bunker upstream of Teddington Lock.

A residents' group called Save Ham Lands and River has been established to fight the scheme. It has formed an alliance with a raft of local resident and community groups. At the same time, more than 21,000 people have singed a Change.org petition against the scheme.

A founder of the group, Paul Tippell, recently condemned the scheme in an interview with Nub News - https://richmond.nub.news/news/local-news/outrage-over-shocking-thames-water-tunnel-plan-to-dig-up-nature-reserve-and-parks-189760

He said: "The full extent of what's being proposed is quite shocking.

"The destruction of the environment on Ham Lands, Moormead Park in St Margaret's and Northcote Nature Reserve in Isleworth, plus the degradation of river water quality are quite unacceptable."

Lulu Harmstorf-Pearl, who lives next to Ham Lands, said the potential construction works are a 'huge worry' and warned that the beautiful Ham Lands would be 'destroyed' by the scheme.

More than 21,000 people have objected to a scheme by Thames Water that threatens to 'destroy' the Ham Lands nature reserve and local parks.

Another local, Berne O'Dea, slammed the scheme as 'devastating'. She raised concerns about the loss of habitat, saying: "Even if they then reinstate it, that's gone, you can't reinstate a badger sett or a tree."

Dad-of-two Richard James is alarmed about treated effluent from Mogden being dumped in the Thames.

He said: "Effluent in the water will end up permanently damaging this part of the river ecosystem affecting wildlife, flora and fauna."

"Given that hundreds of people use the river every day especially during the summer months, this proposal will inevitably see these activities permanently affected for the worse."

Critics of the company said Thames should be concentrating on issues such as tackling leaks from its network.

A Thames Water said: "We've worked closely with the Environment Agency throughout the consultation process and in developing the proposed river abstraction scheme at Teddington.

"We are now carefully reviewing their feedback and we're still in the very early stages of consultation and design.

"At this early stage, we have not yet confirmed the exact locations for shafts and access points associated with the proposed river abstraction scheme in Teddington. Assessments are still ongoing, and we will be sharing more information with communities and stakeholders in the autumn.

"The scheme will not negatively impact the river water quality. The treated wastewater effluent taken from Mogden Sewage Treatment Works, would go through an additional stage of treatment to ensure there is no deterioration to the water quality in the river. This would also compensate for the volume of water abstracted form the river."

Regarding leakage, the spokesperson added: "We know it's not acceptable to be losing so much precious water and would like to assure our customers finding and fixing leaks remains a top priority. In 2022/23 we fixed a total of 66,896 leaks, compared with 61,671 in 2021/22 – that's one leak every 7.5 minutes.

"We're repairing over 1,300 leaks per week – whether visible or below ground. We have over 480 people working to fix leaks with activity taking place 7 days a week and over 400 people working round the clock and mainly overnight to detect leaks not yet appearing at ground level.

"We've recently committed an additional £700million to improve water supplies. In London, we're replacing 70 miles of our leakiest water mains pipes, having met additional requirements set out by our industry regulator."