The Sewage Action Group for the Lambourn Upper Valley (SAGLUV) was formed in 2024, bringing together the villages of Upper Lambourn, Lambourn, Eastbury, East Garston and Great Shefford to confront their common problems with sewer flooding by groundwater infiltration.

The prime objective is to communicate with Thames Water in order to secure clean sewers and a clean River Lambourn

All are in the catchment of the East Shefford Sewage Treatment Works, but it has been recognised that there are two separate sewage networks at the upper end of the Valley, the Lambourn & Upper Lambourn (LUL) network, and the  Eastbury, East Garston & Great Shefford (EEGS) network.

If you have any queries related to this update, or wish to report any incident of concern, please feel free to contact your local SAGLUV representative:

    SAGLUV Update May 2026

    Marytn Wright reports on the recent meeting with Thames Water:

    First a bit of domestic news:

    Due to other pressing commitments, sadly, Sue Tulloch is resigning from SAGLUV, although we know she will continue to keep a close eye on us from the sidelines! We would like to take this opportunity to thank Sue for her valuable contribution, and particularly in helping get the group established in the early days.

    However, we are very fortunate in having an excellent replacement in Hamish Riddoch. An EG resident, and EG Parish Councillor, Hamish is an Environmental Scientist who has very relevant experience in working on water quality issues, including sewage pollution, and with water companies. He is passionate about the River and the environment in general. Hamish is a great asset to our team.

    On flood issues, Martyn Wright is standing down as Flood Warden for East Garston, and Hamish has kindly agreed to take over that role as well. Martyn will still remain in his role as Chair of SAGLUV.

    Spring Progress Review.

    Recently, the SAGLUV Team met with Simon Brittain, Thames Water’s Head of Thames Valley Waste Operations, for a Spring Progress Review.

    As we mentioned in the last SAGLUV report, there was some disappointment that the extensive sewer lining and repair work that was carried out in 2025, did not seem to have had the major impact that had been hoped for. The sewer flooded in East Garston and Eastbury, the EG ATAC filter unit had to be switched on, and Weston suffered continuous tanker runs to ease the pressure on the system. And a further negative, the East Shefford Sewage Treatment Works (ESSTW) discharged untreated sewage into the river at Weston for more than 500 hours. TW are confident that improvements have been achieved, but the full extent cannot be assessed until groundwater levels drop sufficiently to let full-scale camera investigations be carried out. It is evident that the heavy rainfall, with its subsequent surface run-off, put extreme pressure on the sewer network. More of that further in this report.

    Simon gave us a positive update on TW’s plans to further address the groundwater infiltration and sewage issues that covered three key areas.

    1. There are 22 kilometres of TW sewer in our catchment, of which 10km have been relined over the last 20 years. As part of TW’s storm overflows work, their Major Projects and Programme Team are now planning to reline all of the remaining 12km, and CCTV the previously relined sections to ensure that they are still in good order. This pro-active move will be a significant step forward towards resolving the sewer flooding problems, compared to the previous approach of repeatedly waiting for a problem to show before checking and patching.

    Lateral and private drains are not included in these figures as they are either the responsibility of the property owner or at least that part on their land. TW will be following up on those properties where it is identified that faulty drains are causing infiltration problems.

    1. A feasibility study of the Eastbury to EG sewer rising main is underway to decide whether it should be lined, replaced or re-routed. Whichever solution is chosen will further improve the network.
    2. TW have applied to EA for a Reed Bed/Wetlands filter solution to treat storm overflows from ESSTW. This is something that our Weston representative, Dan Rampton, has been campaigning for over the last few years, so hopefully it will be agreed and finally go ahead.

    Firm dates for all of this cannot be confirmed at this stage, but we are confident that major progress will be achieved in the next year or two. Simon has committed to share the information with us as soon as the programmes are firmed up.

    As mentioned above, it is clear that much of the above sewer flooding was the result of the excessive surface water flowing into an already groundwater-charged network. We in SAGLUV concentrate a lot on groundwater, and we tend to forget that heavy rainfall contributes to sewer flooding as well. As reported before, the total rainfall in the four months from November to February was 161% above average. The sewer could have probably managed the level of groundwater infiltration, and the excessive rainfall – but not both together! TW have provided us with some interesting charted data showing the increased levels in the balance tank of the ESSTW during periods of heavy rainfall. See here.

    A major factor in surface water flooding is run-off from house roofs, driveways etc, that drain into the sewer network. More recent building regs do not allow this but obviously many are already in place, and undoubtably, there are some mis-connections. In storm conditions, this run-off can have a dramatic effect on the sewers. This can be seen in a typical example set out here.

    It would help hugely if owners of such properties could be persuaded to divert their run-off into soakaways or rainwater harvesting systems. And an added incentive is a TW discount and rebate scheme for those customers whose properties do not have their run-off rainwater connected to the sewer system. Details of the scheme and how to apply for the discount, which can be backdated for six years, can be found here:

    https://www.thameswater.co.uk/help/account-and-billing/understand-your-bill/reduce-your-wastewater-bill

    SAGLUV Update 6th April 2026

    Martyn Wright notes that groundwater levels are dropping consistently, and although the sewers are still charged with groundwater, the risk of serious sewer flooding is reducing. 

    Now it’s time to review what happened over the winter months following the extensive work to the sewerage network carried out by Thames Water during 2025. Unfortunately, it’s not an entirely satisfactory story.

    Here are the key points:

    • For the four months November to February, rainfall totalled 161% of long term average.
    • Groundwater levels were high. Higher than 2024/25, and similar to 2023/24.
    • The sewers in Lambourn, Eastbury and East Garston were full, and are still heavily charged.
    • Both Lambourn and East Garston ATAC filter units needed to be switched on.
    • Lambourn had sewage spilling out of manholes.
    • Overflows from FLIP devices in Eastbury at Newtown and Wynshall Lane discharged raw sewage into the River from13th February for approximately 3 weeks, as the spur line pipes were inundated with ground water
    • EG had a minor spill but a few ground floor loos were having problems before the ATAC unit was switched on.
    • Great Shefford had no known problems.
    • Tankers have been deployed at Weston to relieve pressure on the system and on the Sewage Treatment Works. The relining work was successful, but there is still infiltration from lateral and private drains.
    • East Shefford Sewage Treatment Works was discharging untreated sewage on a regular basis for about a month despite both ATACs working and tankers running. This was partly due to groundwater levels but the situation was exacerbated by the excessive rainfall over the winter leading to above normal levels of surface water running into the system.
    • After the improvement seen in sewer flooding between winters of 2023/24 and 2024/25, the extensive remedial work carried out in 2025 does not seem to have had any significant impact on flooding levels.
    • TW have been unable to fully investigate the network due to the system being fully overloaded, but this will be done as soon as levels allow to determine the next phase of relining.
    • The ATAC units have been suffering from excessive amounts of “wrong” stuff going down the pipes

    On this final point, TW have shared with us some photographic evidence of “sewer abuse” which led to blockages in the East Garston ATAC unit to a degree that has not been seen in that unit before. Wet wipes and various other items could be clearly seen in this photograph which was taken only a day or two after the unit was switched on. Not surprisingly, the filters were soon blocked resulting in the unit shutting down.

    As has been said many times before, wet wipes are the main cause of the problem of sewer blockages. And don’t be fooled by the term “Flushable”. Yes, they will disappear when flushed down the loo, but most are plastic based and stay in one piece.

    The SAGLUV team are meeting with Thames Water for a review later this month, after which, we will issue a further up-date.