‘No Quick Fix’ to Bramley’s Fuel Pollution But Asda Chairman Shows Commitment

Published on: 17 Jul, 2024
Updated on: 18 Jul, 2024

The disruptive pipe replacement work at Bramley Petrol Station in June.

By Martin Giles

About 200 concerned Bramley residents, half of them having to stand, packed out their village hall to hear an update on the underground petrol contamination that has affected their water supply, drains and telecomms conduits.

The lucky seated section of the audience last night at Bramley Village Hall. Many were standing to the left out of picture. Bottom left is County Cllr Matt Furniss (Con, Shalford).

The petrol leak is thought to have occurred from 2016 onwards at the Bramley crossroads petrol station. The leasehold was only subsequently bought by Asda, in 2022, [not directly from the Co-op as previously stated in error]  “in good faith” said Asda chairman Stuart Rose.

His personal attendance and chairmanship of the meeting seemed to demonstrate his company’s acceptance of current responsibility and, as he said, his determination to bring all the necessary agencies and stakeholders together to resolve the issue. But he also warned “there is no quick fix”.

Stuart Rose, British businessman and life peer, chaired last night’s meeting. Lord Rose was the executive chairman of Marks & Spencer until 2011, then chairman of online retailer Ocado from 2013 to July 2020. He has been chairman of Asda since 2021.

Although clearly very concerned and even anxious, the mood of the audience did not appear angry and the presence of the high powered panel of representatives seemed to be appreciated. Alongside Mr Rose was local MP Jeremy Hunt, Waverley Council Leader Paul Follows, senior representatives from Thames Water and Openreach as well as several other councillors and council offers.

The audience listened patiently to update reports. Restrictions on drinking water have nearly all been lifted and the work to replace plastic piping, permeable to petrol, which had caused major traffic disruption, has now been completed by Thames Water.

The company will be returning to complete localised pipe replacement in areas where they are unable to fully flush their system. This includes four roads: Clockhouse Lane, Mill Lane, old Rectory Close and Park Drive; further detail to be shared very soon.

A spokesperson for Asda’s environmental consultants EPS described how the leaked petrol had formed a “plume” underground extending south of the petrol station. He went on by describing the plan to deal with it and further investigate its extent.

By the end of this week 50 boreholes will have been dug in the village centre in order to identify and monitor the amount of fuel latent in the ground and extract it.

To date up to 500,000 of litres of water have been treated by the on-site “pump and treat” system, but EPS could not confirm just how much petrol is in the ground or how much has been recovered (2,000 litres had previously been mentioned).

The high-powered panel included, in addition to Lord Rose and MP Jeremy Hunt (centre), Asda’s consultant who is coordinating recovery work, and senior spokespersons from Openreach and Thames Water. After this photo was taken they were joined by the Leader of Waverley Borough Council, Paul Follows.

Lord Rose encouraged all agencies to work together and expedite the pace of work in every way possible.

Colin Chiverton of the Environment Agency said that the clean-up is anticipated to take a year at least as the fuel must be pulled slowly out from the ground to avoid further issues. Inhibiting factors, including ongoing high groundwater, and have not been helped by high levels of rainfall in recent months.

The serious impact on local businesses was discussed. Some residents feared that others, following the example of a local greengrocer, might close down. Jeremy Hunt urged the Asda boss to arrange compensation for struggling businesses as soon as possible.

Michael Salter-Church, Openreach spokesman. The need for urgent restoration of telecoms in the village was one of the action points that emerged.

Michael Salter-Church for Openreach described how the petrol contamination had affected the telecoms conduits in the village creating an explosion risk to staff preventing them carrying out maintenance which could include  sending a electrical pulse down copper wires to test them.

Asked by The Dragon if the risk to staff had been balanced against the risk to residents if they cannot communicate, perhaps in emergency situations, he said it had. Today an Openreach spokesperson added: “We’re equally focused on managing the risks resulting from the petrol leak for customers and our engineers. We’re working closely with the service providers who use our network – and who are ultimately responsible for identifying and supporting vulnerable customers.

“For example, some providers are providing mobile dongles to connect customers when a fault occurs that can’t be fixed, and we’ve enabled temporary mobile masts to be located in the grounds of our Bramley exchange to help with that.

“We’re also looking at other ways to share information and coordinate efforts across all the organisations involved to make sure vulnerable customers are protected and catered for.”

But at the meeting some complained that the dongles did not work or work well and that mobile phone connection was very poor, a temporary EE mast providing only very limited improvement. There are also concerns are that emergency buttons given to those at particular risk to summon help, are not working.

Lord Rose asked for a show of hands to see how many present would like the petrol station and shop to open soon, despite the issues but there was little support for the idea.

Jeremy Hunt’s summary

Jeremy Hunt brought the meeting to a close by summarising the actions points that had emerged.

It was agreed that local borough councillor Jane Austin should join the Waverley Borough Council led Recovery Group and that the points identified should be actioned by another public meeting to be held in September.

Today the Godalming & Ash MP published his action points on social media as:

1. Commitment from the many key stakeholders to improve communications, increase community involvement and to have representation from local people on the respective recovery groups.

2. Stuart Rose took away an urgent action to discuss with Asda’s Board (today) a system to agree how to support struggling local businesses via a quick compensation payment.

3. Openreach to help investigate how they can compress their work programme and look at alternative ways to restore the telecommunications network to those impacted.

4. We ran out of time to discuss fully at the meeting, but it’s really important Bramley residents now receive fuller advice about risk of long term exposure at low levels to benzene and other hydrocarbons from the UKHSA / relevant organisations… [including] an independent medical view as to whether there is a long term health risk.

Mr Hunt said: “Last night was a great step forward following a frustrating period for Bramley residents. Residents simply want this mess cleared up as soon as possible; they want to know their drinking water is safe and have a greater understanding of any potential risk of long-term exposure at very low levels to benzene and other chemicals. And they want local businesses to thrive once again after a very tough couple of years.

“I am glad Asda Chairman Stuart Rose was able to listen to local residents concerns and that he has agreed to my request for a further meeting in September where we need to have substantive progress on these issues. Bramley village is lucky to have such a motivated group of local people to support them through this.”

Cllr Jane Austin

Ward councillor Jane Austin added: “Our thanks to Asda and their team for reconnecting with Bramley and clearing up concerns about the remediation plan. We have been through so much as a village; we want everyone working together to help ensure a return to normality – and we need our community to be consulted and involved.

“How Openreach now address restoration of telecommunications to many will be really key in the coming months as this is a growing issue for local people. This fuel leak is far from over – but this is a step in the right direction for sure.”

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