Our plans for water: new consultation opens today 

Today marks the launch of our draft business plan for 2010 to 2015, and the publication of a summary of our proposals: ‘Our plans for water - what will you get and how much will it cost?’

What will you get?

We plan to:·    

v    Continue our Victorian Mains Replacement project to greatly reduce leakage

v    Introduce a programme of metering in areas where water supplies are under greatest pressure
  

v     Provide more advice and assistance to help customers use water wisely

v       Develop plans for and, if approved, start work to construct a new reservoir to safeguard water supplies

v     Greatly reduce sewage overflows into the Rivers Thames and Lee

v    Make sure our sewers and sewage works can serve our growing population

v    Greatly reduce the number of our customers’ homes threatened by sewer flooding

v    Improve 250km of rivers to meet new water quality standards

v    Cut our carbon emissions by 20%, and implement projects needed to meet the requirements of legislation

v    Provide more financial assistance to customers who have difficulty paying their bills to ensure our services are affordable

What will it cost?

Our  £6.5bn investment programme will lead to an average annual increase in our bills for water and wastewater services of 3%.  The total increase from 2010 to 2015 will be 16.2%.  This is an increase in real terms from £283 to £329.*

Let us know your views

Our proposals have  been  informed  by  our  biggest  ever  programme  of consultation,  and  I  am  confident  that we have put our customers at the heart  of  our  plans.   We are launching a 12-week online consultation to continue this dialogue, and I hope you will take this opportunity to let us
know your views.We  will  use  the results of the consultation to modify our plan before we submit  the  final  version  to  our  regulator Ofwat in April 2009.  Their review of our proposals will set price limits for 2010 to 2015.We look forward to receiving your comments.

Peter Antolik
Regulation and Strategy Director

v    Bill impacts are quoted at average 2007-2008 price levels.

 Please  click  http://www.thameswaterconsult.co.uk/  to  register  for  our consultation   or http://www.thameswater.co.uk/fiveyearplan  to  view  our
plans.

Waltham Forest Council is urging residents who refuse to participate in the borough’s compulsory recycling scheme to take part before it is too late. 

So far the response from residents to compulsory recycling in Waltham Forest has been fantastic, and the borough has one of the best recycling records in London.

But Waltham Forest needs to recycle more to meet strict government targets on landfill and help the environment. 

In the coming weeks, residents in areas with low recycling rates will be visited by specialist teams who will advise them how to recycle moreeffectively and explain why it is important.

Ultimately people who repeatedly refuse to recycle could be fined. 

Waltham Forest Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Cllr Bob Belam, said: “Recycling makes sense, it’s easy to do and it helps the environment.“Of course we don’t want to fine residents, but we are facing considerably bigger landfill taxes in the coming years and people who don’t recycle will effectively cost other residents money. “We know residents want to recycle more and we want to help them do that by ensuring they know exactly what they should be placing in their black boxes.

“Ultimately if residents do not wish to be fined, all they need to do is participate in the scheme and help us make Waltham Forest one of the greenest boroughs in London.”

Residents in properties not covered by the ‘Get Sorted’ doorstep recycling scheme will not be fined for failing to recycle properly.

You could be fined if you refuse to recycle

 more info:

To find out more  information about the ‘Get Sorted’ scheme,or to order a new or replacement black box ring 020 8496 3000.

Waltham Forest will be cleaner than ever before with contractor KierStreet Services introducing new technology and techniques to keepthe borough tidy.

The contractor started working in Waltham Forest on 2 June and is responsible for sweeping streets and grounds maintenance in the borough’s parks.

The new contract has saved the Council £600,000 which will be used to fund new schemes to help make Waltham Forest the greenest borough in London.

Kier’s performance will be measured by how clean the streets are kept.

Since the contract started in June there have been some handover problemswhich have meant disruption to cleaning services in some areas of the borough.

Waltham Forest Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment,Cllr Bob Belam, told wfm: “I’d like to apologise to residents for the glitches we’ve had since the new contract started. Roads are now getting cleaner andresidents will start noticing the difference soon.    “Residents told us that they want cleaner streets and the new contract with Kier will mean teams working all hours to keep our borough tidy.”Under the old service, separate teams were responsible for cleaning roads, green spaces and parks, and the roadside.

The new contract brings these services together, making the same cleaner responsible for the whole area.

Cabinet Member for Leisure, Arts and Culture, Cllr Geraldine Reardon, said: “Having one contractor carrying out all cleaning in the borough means a joined up service that can tackle problems more efficiently, improve the appearance of our parks and open spaces and make them even more pleasant for residents to visit.”The Council is keenly aware that residents have raised a number of issues around the service handover period. It is working with Kier to tackle the initial teething problems.

Some of the changes that residents will see include:

v    Altering the number of road sweepers to make sure roads are properly swept

v    Introduction of new technology so they can sweep more quickly and effectively

v    Cleaning blitzes on particular areas to quickly bring them up to scratch

v    Allocated drop off points for street sweepers to leave their bags of rubbish, so motorised crews can clear them more rapidly

v    Extra crews to spray and remove weeds in guttersv    Monitoring the cleanliness of roads, before, during and after cleaning to see how well they are swept and how long they take to get dirty