Local History Display

The Sherborne Archives will have some significant display material up at the Northleach Local History exhibition, which is in the Old Prison this coming weekend. Details above. I can confirm that the material they have on display is fascinating. It would be great to support the Archives. Please go along and visit. Indeed, if you are interested, they're looking for some help to man the stand.

SEWAGE TREATMENT. This morning, on a follow-up to my queries about the treatment of our sewage that goes from Sherborne to Bourton, I took part in a visit to the Bourton-on-the-Water sewage treatment works. The visit was useful, but unfortunately somewhat limited, we were not able to go and inspect the discharge point, which was the original cause of our concern. I was accompanied by a member of the Sherborne Parish Council and the coordinator of the Windrush Catchment Partnership. Nonetheless, the Thames Water staff that were there were very engaging, open, and candid with us, and that was great.

Some of the issues we were able to understand much better. One of our key concerns was that the increase in capacity of the sewage treatment works was originally scheduled to be finished in the spring of 2023. The original capacity of the treatment works was 47 L/s of sewage treated. The new capacity will be 143 L/s of sewage treated as a minimum, and on occasions they'll be able to take up to 200 L/s. Sadly, the finish date has slipped from spring 2023, and the current expectation (no promises) is that the work will be complete by September 2027. There are a number of reasons for this delay, spread across various culprits. What follows is my interpretation.

1. Thames Water have only really recently got their act together in the last couple of years in terms of increasing capacity. They have addressed additional resources to this project now. And the project managers who we engaged with were clearly competent and capable. The site was extremely busy with construction work, and clearly a lot of effort is being put in. There's an estimate of about £20 million being spent on this increased capacity.
2. More recently, the delay is due to the electricity company SSE being unable to come to move an overhead cable. The whole project is currently hung up on an overhead cable that SSE don't seem to be able to prioritise. This is extremely frustrating for everyone. We might have once called this "joined-up government," but these are now two commercial companies who don't seem to be able to prioritise the situation. I'll be discussing our options with the parish council, perhaps writing a letter to Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, our local MP, to see if he can exert pressure on SSE. I may come and ask you to support such a letter.
3. Without this enabling work by SSE to lift the cable, we are in danger of another bad winter of sewage discharges. Once the upgrade is complete, the number of discharges should reduce very significantly.
4. We all share a high degree of uncomfortable feeling because the discharge meter only monitors a discharge taking place. It doesn't provide the key numbers as to the volumes that are discharged and the concentration of sewage in that. I'm surprised that this issue hasn't been addressed. It shouldn't be too difficult. A flow metre, you'd have thought, would be easy to install, and occasional sampling would give us an idea of concentrations. As it is, the managers of the sewage treatment works have no real handle on what volumes are being discharged. I think that's a bit surprising, and I'm disappointed.
5. Another issue on which perhaps a more strategic view needs to be taken is that the Cotswold District Council's plans for increased housing in the district are inevitably going to add more demand on the capacity of the sewage treatment works. As a community, we should perhaps be encouraging the Cotswold District Council to make sure that, in their considerations, they take full account of an already under-strained sewage capacity. I'll discuss this with the parish council.

We hope for a return visit in the future:

1. To look at the discharge point
2. Perhaps in a year's time, to see the full site in operation

If it helps to understand the scale of the work, here's a photo from 1999. The two circular sewage treatment systems had just been installed.

and this mage from this summer showing increased numbers of treatment plants on the right.

Overall, the visit was actually quite interesting to enable me to understand the processes better. It's a very interesting mix of engineering, chemistry, biology, and biochemistry, all in a single system. There's a lot of three-letter acronyms and a lot of technical language, but I'm slowly getting my head around it. And certainly, now in a position to ask more pertinent questions and understand some of the constraints which Thames Water are operating in, I can forgive some of them, but not all of them. To be continued.