| Topic: | Re:Public Drop in session - Thames Tunnel | |
| Posted by: | Karen Liebreich | |
| Date/Time: | 04/08/14 23:34:00 |
| Some of the criticisms of the Thames Tunnel include: current cost estimate £4.8bn (up from original estimate of £1.7bn); lack of research into alternatives; the water experts who initially recommended the Tunnel solution no longer support it; Thames Water made huge profits last year but pays virtually no tax as it is Cayman Island based; Thames Water has generously doled out so much in dividends to its shareholders, and bonuses to its chief execs that it has sadly no money left to pay for the Tunnel so all our water bills will go up by £70-80pa; elsewhere in large cities other solutions are increasingly favoured, etc etc. Thames Water has a very slick PR machine, and the argument is complex, whereas the problem is very simple - after all, no-one wants a river full of shit. But the devil is in the financial and technical detail (which is admittedly a bit dull!). Private Eye did a two-part expose on it recently, see https://twitter.com/MLiebreich/status/431451929190084609/photo/1. There is a lot more info and lots of critical press, eg from Financial Times, Bloomberg and various Professors of Flooding, etc at http://cleanthames.org/ |