Letter: Questions Need To Be Asked About Contamination of Bramley Water Supply

Published on: 2 Jun, 2024
Updated on: 2 Jun, 2024

Work to upgrade water mains at the petrol station in Bramley.

From: Zoltan Jorovic

In response to: Bramley Water Contamination – Residents Noticed Fuel Smells At Least Three Years Ago

The Petrol Enforcement Authority, which has legal responsibility for issuing certificates of safety to petrol stations and which has completely failed in this case, is part of Surrey County Council. Readers might wish to ask their county councillor the question what have they been doing?

They were notably absent from the Bramley village meeting and question and answer session where Surrey County Council, despite it being their responsibility.

Waverley Borough Council has no role in managing or supervising or certifying petrol stations – this is totally the county council. So perhaps concerns should be directed there if real answers as to how this happened and why it has dragged on so long are desired.

Questions could also be directed at Thames Water as to why they used plastic pipes on a stretch of water main running right alongside a petrol station, when they know that hydrocarbons can infiltrate these pipes. This was an incident waiting to happen.

We might further ask why it has taken three years for the source of the fuel leak to be identified when the petrol station is slap bang in the middle of Bramley and the stench of petrol pervaded the air. Residents pointed out the obvious conclusion, but those in a position to investigate seemed to prefer to look elsewhere.

We should definitely be asking how did the petrol station leak more than 2000 litres of unleaded without the Petrol Enforcement Authority (Surrey County Council) noticing? How did it manage to pass the pressure tests between August 2016 when the pipe was damaged, and February 2024 this year?

Anyone looking to make political capital out of this needs to ask who is currently in charge of Surrey County Council, and who has been in government and so legislating for safety and (under) funding organisations such as the PEA and the Environment Agency rendering them toothless and ineffective, leading to their obviously and utterly failing the people of Bramley.

Responses to Letter: Questions Need To Be Asked About Contamination of Bramley Water Supply

Mark Chapman Reply

June 3, 2024 at 7:57 am

You are quite correct to question the efficacy of the agencies involved here.

Sadly, these things become a political football. The elected councillors have no control over this kind of problem, it is only the employed staff that would deal with something like this.

It is apparent that a terrible cancer has effected council structures, the Dighways Department at SCC are so useless that they told the CEO of my local council a pack of lies regarding the drains in my road.

The only reason that it did not get taken further was that the data protection act stopped my neighbour from sharing his CCTV which showed that contrary to what the CEO of the council had been told in writing, nobody had been near the drains in six months. (Thank you to my neighbour for checking his recordings).

Sadly the elected now have little or no control over the council employees.