In red we have the critical drainage areas in RBKC and in green the area most affected by the July floodings

Last night RBKC investigated the flash floods that hit London in July particularly in their neighbourhoods where we certainly had more resident participation.  On top of which we had representatives from  OFWAT, the regulator of Water Utilities in the UK and the Consumer Council for Water as well as  course Thames Water defending themselves along with local councillors. 

But first the impact the floods had in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. Clearly the sewer system was unable to cope with the intense storms in July which was compounded by the high tide.  Altogether, some 25 streets were flooded, 220 residents re-housed with one block of flats completely surrounded by water and as well affected 3 schools. Some 25-50 local businesses were also affected and it has also had a major mental health toll as well. 

One of the popular demands of the evening from residents was why not enough FLIPs (Flooding Local Improvement Programme ) particularly pumps built into basement properties were not built into their homes after 2007 floods, a key element of the Counters Creek Sewer flooding Alleviation scheme proposal from 2014. 

It was interesting to note the tension between OFWAT and Thames Water and their recent performance is already an issue of concern for the regulator. Thames Water themselves accepted that their services were not good enough, largely due to its historic management and it would take some 8 years to turn it around again.  So watch this space! 

Finally the next borough scrutiny of the impact of the flash floods in West Central will be in Hammersmith & Fulham.  So far we have heard different stories of the impact of the flash flooding in West Central and how to deal with the many issues it highlights. 

The floods last night in Knightsbridge are another reminder of the adverse effects of the floods on the 12th & 25th of July and appear to have become a regular occurrence in London.

Last week’s Westminster Council Public Scrutiny meeting at Porchester Hall, W2 was an attempt to scrutinise the issues involved but raised for me more questions than answers.

After many councillors in Maida Vale and other affected wards in Westminster City Council reported the extent of the damage done to angry local residents we heard for the first time about the Council’s Section 19 interim Report; Thames Water and London Fire Service. This while we should not forget the council has responsibility for the local highway drainage, Thames Water manage the sewer network. 

As expected while Thames Water were sorry for what had happened but did not accept any liability for compensation on the matter, emphasising they independent enquiry into the whole matter. They readily conceded the response on the day of the floods was – to quote their corporate director – ‘bloody awful’ but deny liability for the damage caused. This while the councils have responsibility for the local highway drainage, Thames Water manage the sewer network. 

For example we heard about a man of 72 from Maida Vale just getting over cancer, who had lost everything in the floods won’t be get a penny in compensation. He has since the flooding become homeless and been moved around to six different hotels by the council!  What they did not tell us was who was going to part of the independent enquiry and how they will consult with residents adversely affected by the floods. It could quite easily by made up representatives of other private water utilities, and thus not likely to say anything which means the water industry needs to address. So let us watch this space for the make up the Board for the Independent Enquiry.

We heard 230 homes were flooded in Westminster altogether and it was one of the busiest day’s for the London Fire Brigade who help drain the floods down. The local borough Commander for Westminster gave us an excellent over all picture for London, but not the local one for Westminster. Something local residents should pursue clearly given the impact in Maida Vale, Little Venice and Pimlico. 

Hammersmith & Fulham council will be having a similar Public Scrutiny Meeting on the flooding in their borough soon. Here the Brackenbury Residents’ Association and LBHF among others are compiling a list of the properties affected, a similar exercise would be useful in Westminster as well.  As the exercise in H&F mirrors closely the properties affected in the last major flood in 2007. This is significant as Thames Water claim this is an exceptional (1:300 year) event that could not have been predicted or prevented. There was of course the major Counters Creek flood relief scheme cancelled as unnecessary in 2014 but many of the alternative mitigations (FLIPS and SUDS for those used to the jargon) were not particularly well completed. Whilst the Maida Vale Alleviation Scheme had been built out in W9, but to no avail on the 12th of July! 

The threat and how we deal with flooding is clearly not going to go away around London, so keep in touch on the website stoplondonfloods.com

Whilst l have had the double jab, I shall not be taking a booster!

As a doubled jabbed 50 plus year old Londoner, l won’t be taking a booster.

As l rather it be used for the global efforts against COVID19 pandemic particularly in the developing world. As the WHO chief tells us, COVID19 is no respecter of borders so when a virus is widely circulating in a population and causing many infections, the likelihood of the virus mutating and spreading increases. As the WHO warns, we need to do everything possible to stop the spread of the virus in order to prevent mutations that may reduce the efficacy of existing vaccines.

So jabbing the world is the priority for me, before the booster.

Whilst l was chairing the Housing Committee at the London Assembly during the political year 2020/21 l was inundated with complaint of Housing Association’s and their housing management, particularly of the largest ones operating in Greater London.

Indeed l found myself writing a letter of compliant on behave of many Londoners living in these poorly managed homes for a particularly large Housing Association across the whole of Greater London to the regulator of social housing. But they dropped the case, that their consumer standards have not been breached! 

“We have carefully considered the information you provided, and we have concluded that our consumer standards have not been breached. For that reason, we are unable to take regulatory action in this case. ” 

Since then there has been a lot of coverage of how bad some of this management is in London by the mainstream media both on TV on ITV News and also the papers. In the Observer they covered these issues over consecutive weekends thus following up their exposure of the issues with one particular Housing Association in London. 

So l feel vindicated in my pursuit of the poor housing management standards of many large Housing Associations as it appears at least some like L&Q have acknowledged those concerns and have began addressing these matter. 

I did of course raise the matter with the Mayor of London before my departure of City Hall at one of my last MQT, and he raised the prospect of appointing a social housing residents Ambassador. 

But l thing he needs to go much further than that. He needs to take on board these poor housing management considerations of tenants and resident of their social landlord when allocating them huge monies from the annual Affordable Housing Programme. For instance one large Housing Association was given £240 million programme whilst having major complaints on how they run some of their Estates in South London on television! So all credit to ITN News for making this a main news item, something that would usually be ignored by main stream news channels.  Let us hope the Mayor responds to my suggestion in a future round of allocations of capital funding that it should be a condition of funding that good quality maintenance of existing homes is proven. Otherwise we just storing up more problems in the future for our London residents of new social housing! 

Yesterday we had Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, His Excellency Dr. A.K. Abdul Momen  Saida Muna Tasneem High Commissioner of Bangladesh in the UK & Ireland discussing collaborative global climate action ahead of COP26 under the title “Climate change and the need for adaptation” co-organised by Bangladesh High Commission & Chatham House. We also had the former President of the Maldives in attendance, Muhammad Nasheed. 

He stated that as chair of Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), it is important for Bangladesh to support member countries gain technology, financing in climate adaptation, resilience building and amplify their voices during COP26.  The CVF and COP26 also need to join hands for a successful CVF Dhaka-Glasgow declaration and organise a leaders summit at sidelines of the world leaders summit. 

Climate finance to help developing world adapt from climate change has become the key issue before COP26 at Glasgow of trust between the developed and developing world in the lead up to the Conference. $100 billion was promised to the developed world by the developing world in their commitments to the Paris Agreement and progress on this front has been slow as the OCED graph below well illustrates. We have yet to reach the target set for 2020, when at most 79 per cent of the target has been reached.         

Further under the chairmanship of Bangladesh, the Climate Vulnerable Forum – a group of 48 climate vulnerable countries & thus one of the biggest voting blocks conference of the parties – members are being encouraged not to pay international development loans and their interest, as a means of protest against $100 billion climate finance not being in place yet from the developed world. In this respect please see the letter below, from the PM Sheikh Hasina. This while it is known it is likely $300 billion will be needed by 2030 for the developing world to adapt to climate change.  So watch out for what the CVF does at COP26 in response to this outstanding issue from Paris 2015. 

Flooding of the basement at the family house along Warwick Avenue

The IPCC Report releases this week confirms that heavy rainfall will be more frequent and intense. So London’s flooding is sure to worsen, as further development means flood plains being covered by concrete. One way of responding is saving our front gardens at least from the work of the Environment Committee at the London Assembly. 

A major shaft was dig on the corner of Formosa St and Shirland Rd,W9 to take flood waters away to under the canal to a storage facility at Westbourne Garden, yet it was still not able to cope with the down pour we had this week. 

After all we have been paying for these facilities via increased water bills, as the works at the time even had to be approved by the regulator at the time.  And the map clearing shows the properties that should be affected by this improvement yet many properties along Warwick Avenue, Formosa St had been flooded in the basement areas again last Monday. In fact my parental house was flooded even worse than ever before. 

More generally we need to ask ourselves how often we can now expect such flash rain falls as well as whether the infrastructure can handle these occurrences whether by changes in the climate and the urban environment. As we can see from events in Belgium and Germany, floods caused by heavy rains have left more than 30 deaths ( up to a 1,000 missing) and destroyed many buildings as well.