H&F has renewed its challenge to Thames Water as recent testing at Fulham Reach by the charity River Action revealed this week that there was up to ten times the amount of E.coli bacteria in Hammersmith than is allowed for bathing water status.
Deputy Leader Cllr Ben Coleman and Public Health Director Dr Nicola Lang wrote to Thames Water’s Chief Executive Chris Weston "to express our horror at today’s revelation of deeply harmful sewage release into the River Thames in our borough".
They demanded to know from him "what commitment you can give us that Thames Water will not risk public health any further by continuing such sewage dumping in our river."
The letter also pointed out that, according to its own monitors, Thames Water dumped sewage for nearly six hours by Fulham on Wednesday, and for seven hours by Fulham and Chelsea on Tuesday. This is a near daily occurrence and happens even when there is no rain.
The news came as new data showed that sewage spills into England's rivers and seas by water companies more than doubled last year.
According to the Environment Agency there were 3.6 million hours of spills compared to 1.75 million hours in 2022.
It is just over a year since H&F last called on Thames Water demanding improvements.
