Thames Water have today issued a statement promising to 'repair' the River Crane in West London that has been devastated by raw sewage.

Local groups including the Thames Anglers Conservancy have been invited along for a meeting to discuss the environmental impact of the pollution.

TAC members are furious that a Thames tributary was sacrificed in such a manner and will be seeking answers from Thames Water and the EA how this was allowed to happen. The Environment Agency teams are assessing the full extent of the damage and continuing the clean up operation.

Thames Water Statement

Company pledges to repair River Crane sewage spill damage

Thames Water today pledged to help put right the environmental damage caused by sewage spilling into the River Crane when a sluice gate jammed closed in a major sewer serving Heathrow Airport.

Chief executive Martin Baggs said the company was "committed to put things right over the long term." The six-tonne, cast-iron penstock, used for controlling flows, jammed closed on Saturday afternoon in a trunk sewer at Cranford Bridge on the A4 Bath Road while engineers carried out routine maintenance. Attempts to re-open the sluice gate were not successful until 8am on Monday, when engineers used a custom-made lifting device to force open the jammed penstock.

Although engineers were able to take a lot of the backed-up sewage away in tanker lorries for treatment, the volume of sewage was such that they were not able to tanker all of it. Faced with the unpalatable choice of letting the remaining sewage back up into the airport or spill to the River Crane, the company was forced to opt for the latter.

From Sunday afternoon until 3am on Monday sewage spilled intermittently to the river.

"The Crane has been much improved as an urban wildlife habitat and an attractive natural resource for the community in recent years mainly thanks to hard work of local volunteers, who are understandably upset to see their river suffer major environmental damage over much of its length," said Mr Baggs.

"We deeply regret this incident and we are committed to put things right over the long term.

"We will start that process by meeting this week with representatives from FORCE (Friend of the River Crane Environment), London Wildlife Trust, local anglers and the Environment Agency, so we can fully understand the extent of the damage, and what needs to be done to repair it."

TAC