Thames Water is likely to get away without paying thousands of pounds to West Berkshire Council for portaloos it has installed for villagers flooded with sewage.
And tankers are likely to be a fixture in West Berkshire for the coming years, as the water company’s plans to upgrade a major part of the sewer network in Newbury aren’t scheduled to start until 2027.
The council has spent more than £3k on the temporary toilets after sewers flooded out on to streets and into gardens of Berkshire villages - and it will be sending a bill for the cost of repairing footpaths damaged by pumping lorries.
But says it is limited in what it can force Thames Water to do.
There have been calls for them to use abatement powers to crank the water company into action.
But environmental health officers say this legal mechanism will not work, as it directly relates to a location, and actions specific to that location.
For example, a noise abatement order on a bar would require that the noise is turned down at that location.
And as West Berkshire is literally leaking from everywhere, and no one is directly responsible for water, there is no one organisation that can be forced to take responsibility to sort it out.
And no legal levers for them to use.
Thames Water is responsible for the sewers, the Environment Agency the rivers and the council has limited responsibility for highways drainage.
The local authority is more or less without any power to force Thames Water to fix the problem which has seen them put up road signs warning people to slow down to stop spraying sewage.
All it can do is respond tactically to sewer flooding incidents, and has coughed up to pay for Portaloos in Great Shefford, West Isley and Burghfield so residents flooded out can use them.
There is no strategy or apparent process in place to insist on a wholesale upgrade of the entire system in the district.
So the council is limited to tactical mitigations.
For example, the footway on Newport Road in Newbury has been damaged by pump trucks, and officers reckon at least £10k of damage - plus the time of council staff to deal with it.
The council says there are still daily clean ups going on in Lambourn, but reports the situation is improving.
And they say the Environment Agency has removed weeds from the River Lambourn at Eastbury, which has resulted in the water levels dropping, thus keeping the water level down so it doesn’t flood into manholes.
Residents in East IIsley are still pumping water out of their basements along Abingdon Road - at their own cost, and it is unlikely they can claim anything back from Thames Water.
Tankers are still pumping away at Newport Road in Newbury and will likely be a regular fixture in the rainy season.
The cause here is the Victorian pumping stations at London Road and Walton Way, which were built around 130 years ago and partially upgraded in the 1960s.
Council officers say the rising mains also need upgrading between London Road to Lower Way and Station Road to London Road and says despite regular communication with Thames Water about fixing or relining the sewers, its not doing much good.
It is essentially patching up a bucket full of holes each time and just moves the problem water from a fixed leak to another weak part of the system.
The council says flood forums are its eyes and ears, and urges people to keep reporting issues to Thames Water and the public protection partnership.
