Two years ago in June 2016, there was widespread flooding in Pimlico due to heavy rainfall and the complete failure of the Longmoore Street Pumping Station.
Thames Water mended the pumping station and gave us assurances that the pumping station would not fail again – but it has. We were dismayed to learn that on Tuesday 29th May, the Longmoore Pumping Station failed again resulting in 39 properties being flooded with both water and sewage, including some that had been flooded in 2016. We have been told that following the heavy rainfall and hydraulic overload, the pumps in the Station tripped at 3.30pm and the pumps were reactivated by 4.00pm. That short failure during those weather conditions was enough to cause problems. Of the properties affected, 31 are served by the Longmoore Pumping Station and 8 are gravity drained.
This time, Thames Water responded very quickly. They informed the Council’s Contingency Planning team (as agreed with Councillors Flight and Wilkinson after the last failure in 2016) and had customer representatives, clean-up teams and loss adjusters on site since the evening of Tuesday 29th May.
Thames Water advise customers to claim through their own insurance company for any flood damage. However, where customers have difficulty with this they will, on a without-prejudice basis, sympathetically consider support for customers affected, via their loss adjustors, on a discretionary basis in recognition of the fact that this is a second occurrence. Cllr Wilkinson commented: “This further flooding is dreadful for those affected and some residents for a second time. Thames Water now recognise they should not have given assurances that flooding would never happen again. Regrettably this can be of little comfort to residents who were flooded.”
Any affected customers who have not spoken to Thames Water customer representatives or loss adjusters on site should ring 0800 3169800 for assistance.
