THAMES Water has extended its public consultation on the Thames Tunnel, a planned 20-mile ‘super sewer’ from Beckton to west London, until January 14 to give people more opportunity to have their say.

Since consultation started in September, Thames Water has sent out 175,000 letters to potentially affected communities, staged over 20 local ‘drop-in’ exhibitions close to potential sites and attended over 40 other meetings. More than 4,000 people have attended exhibitions so far and 1,000 people have already submitted their feedback.

The water company says the tunnel is urgently required to tackle the 39 million tonnes of sewage discharged into the River Thames each year, due to lack of capacity in the Victorian sewerage network.

Being proposed is a sewer, the width of three London buses, which will run from west to east London, up to 75 metres below ground, broadly following the route of the River Thames. It will collect the sewage currently discharged to the river from the 34 most polluting combined sewer overflows, to capture sewage which otherwise discharges into the River Thames, before transferring it to Beckton Sewage Works for treatment.

Phil Stride, Head of London Tideway Tunnels, at Thames Water, said:

“Feedback indicates some people have only recently become aware of the consultation. That’s why we’ve decided to give people more time to get their comments in to us.

“No final decisions have been taken yet.”

The remaining exhibition will be on December 13-14, from 10am to 8pm at

City Hall, The Queen’s Walk, Southwark.

People can register their views by attending the exhibition or visiting the consultation website: www.thamestunnelconsultation.co.uk. Paper copies of the feedback form are available from our Customer Centre 0845 366 2950.