Berrylands pong sufferers urged to call Thames Water.
Last months meeting between Kingston councillors and Thames Water has prompted local MP Edward Davey to urge Berrylands residents to contact the water companies customer support number whenever there's a bad smell.
Davey states that the company has a duty to act on sufficient number of localised complaints saying, 'We need to win the case for extra investment, so if we as a community give Thames Water full details of the date, time and duration of any odours, we can enhance the chances of a solution to this long-standing problem.'
The number to ring when you consider that the Hogsmill sewage works is giving off unpleasant odors is 0845 920 0800.
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Surrey Comet 
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Berrylands Smell - I recently moved here and wonder if anything is currently being done about the problem as this is the only reference I could find to action being taken (2006?). However, if you ring the the Thames Water phone number suggested by Edward Davey's office there is no 'if you are calling for any other reason' option for making the complaint - what do people do? How do we know how many people are complaining and how often? Who is compiling the stinkometer on this site. I have been prompted to try and find about this because as I write (14/06/09) I would say the level is about 60-80% and is stopping me from going out into my garden even though the weather is quite pleasant. Is it my imagination or does it happen more frequently at the weekend and on Bank Holidays and also depending on the wind direction? Does it mean that when we haven't got the smell, somewhere else has? Have long term Berrylands residents given up on this? If anyone knows anything current about it please reply - thanks!
Hi Kimmi
RBK have made it easy to complain about odours at the Hogsmill works.
Surbiton.com - webmaster, maybe you could provide a link to the complaint form ,eg if somebody enters a score of 3 or more?
ONLINE:
http://www.kingston.gov.uk/browse/environment/environmental_health/pollu...
OR email:
hogstwodour@rbk.kingston.gov.uk
OR by phone - leave a message 24 hours a day on the Odour Hotline 020 8547 4669.
When leaving a message it is important to provide your full contact details,
including name and address as without this information we are unable to plot your location and
establish the extent of the odour.
OR in writing
Send a Fax or Letter to:
Environmental Health Service
Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames
Guildhall
Kingston upon Thames
KT1 1EU
Fax: 020 8547 5568
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A New Malden campaign group was set up a few years ago to fight for Thames Water to upgrade the works to use better (but more expensive equipment) used in other London sewage works.
They were called New Malden Air, but I can't find any current reference to them online.
See the Surrey Comet story here for info: http://www.surreycomet.co.uk/news/1619120.holding_their_noses_for_a_litt...
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RBK appear to be very lenient with regard to Thames Water's management of the site.
Compare RBK's approach to that of Hounslow who took Thames Water to court and won, forcing them to install much better equipment to avoid nuisance smells.
See http://www.nce.co.uk/thames-water-faces-huge-claim-in-mogden-sewage-sten...
There is nothing to stop RBK doing the same and getting the same type of equipment here.
I went to a public meeting a few weeks ago and a RBK planner claimed he wasn't aware of any issue about odour at the site.
I find that hard to believe.
Thames Water were originally (late 1980's!) given permission to expand Hogsmill as long as they made environmental improveemnts, including removing all redundant plant and equipment from the WHOLE site.
Thames Water never did this promised work.
Some time back, well over a year ago, RBK eventually settled for an agreement that would see most, but not all, of the Hogsmill site geting environmental improvements.
Things like more trees, things to attract birds, etc.
The cost was to be several million pounds.
Its interesting that the piece of fenced off land adjacent to the current student accommodation was deliberately excluded from the new agreement.
It looks like the decision has already been made to accommodate future plans for a student village to be developed there.
RBK planners appear to be accommodating these plans.
The environmental improvements, promised in the late eighties, renegotiated a year or two ago still haven't been made (or even started!).
I think there may be scope for a complaint to be made for non-adherence to the planning regulations.
Just to let everyone know, we've resinstated the Smell-o-meter block on the right-hand side. It disappeared after we did a recent change to the site's back-end.
There's a history of users' stink ratings here:
www.surbiton.com/smellometer
I don't think that anything is being done about it. Thames Water tried to blackmail residents and the council a couple of years ago, by saying that they would sort at the issue IF they were allowed to sell the land off to build a massive studetn 'village' on the site.
This plan was thrown out - the smell is the lesser of two evils but should still be addressed. I expect that there are still quite a few complaints going in - remember that this affects large swathes of Kingston/Surbiton in on direction and New Malden in the other as well as Berrylands itself.
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