There have now been three sewage spills in four days in the area around the top of Brookside and London Road. All blockages in the line have been cleared, the latest was completed Friday night.

The line has been jetted upstream and cleared but the underground flow is so strong that it is currently not possible to get a camera down to make a closer inspection of the pipe.

This problem is complex in that there a number of factors that need to be taken into account.

1. All the blockages have been caused by ‘rag’, a term which includes a number of possible items including baby wipes. Baby wipes have often been visible when the line is unblocked. We have found out that confusing and misleading product labelling can lead to people flushing toddler wipes and sanitary items which can take a number of years to break down. The Thames Water website comments:

There are currently no restrictions in place to prevent these products being sold as ‘flushable’. 

The only product to pass water industry ‘flushability’ tests so far is toilet paper. Manufacturers have their own tests, which are more lenient resulting in a greater number of products being labelled ‘flushable’. 

To resolve this, the water industry and manufacturers are working together to develop a shared protocol. This project is also hoping to influence product labelling.

2. The frequency and volume of blockages seems to indicate that the diameter of the pipe may not be big enough or that the pipe has got too old or is damaged.

3. The timing of these blockages coincides with works to replace part of a sewer on the northern side of London Road and engineers want to find out if the two are related.

The situation currently is that a network engineer is making a site visit today to make an assessment. Hopefully a camera can be used to determine the state of the pipe below. A cleaning up operation will be done by contractors next week if the all clear is given. The work has priority 1 status. Engineers need to assess whether any pollution of Boundary Brook has taken place – tests will need to be done and if found positive, the Environment Agency will be informed, but we have no information on this yet and it may turn out that tests will be negative.

Your local councillors are in contact with both Thames Water and their contractors. It would help us if residents could express concerns over whether the diameter of the pipe is big enough whenever they speak to TW or to contractors.

Actions for councillors

• We are pressing for updates and actions from Thames Water
• We have agreed with Thames Water that they will carry out a leaflet drop to residents in the surrounding area about what can and cannot be flushed away
• We have agreed with Thames Water that we shall publicise this web page to the wider area
• We have obtained a Headington sewer map so that residents and councillors can see where the pipes run to and from in the area
• We are in touch with Trading Standards to find out how best we can get movement from manufacturers on the shared protocol for product labelling and will consider how best to take this forward nationally