Chalfont St Peter High Street section to close for sewer works after floods

A section of Chalfont St Peter’s High Street is set to close for nearly two months for sewer works following recent flooding in the village.

Thames Water said a 50m stretch of road between the mini roundabout and the A413 junction would be shut from October 10 to December 5, but that village will still be accessible from Lower Road and Market Place.

The water firm is creating a new tanker filling point on the A413 off the junction with the High Street, so that ‘excess flow’ can be removed during periods of heavy rainfall.

Work laying an underground pipeline is expected to begin on October 14 and should only last for six weeks, according to Thames Water.

One lane of the northbound carriageway of the A413 will be closed but access to the village from the Greyhound roundabout will remain open, Chalfont St Peter Parish Council said.

The road closure comes after the village received more than 200 per cent of long-term average rainfall during the winter of 2023.

Heavy rain persisted through to the beginning of this year, including several named storms, while Buckinghamshire saw its wettest February and September since records began in 1836.

Thames Water’s works set to start next month are designed to help mitigate flooding in Chalfont St Peter, while it carries out longer-term engineering, which ‘could take years’.

Its ongoing projects in the area include installing short and long-term flow monitors to understand where groundwater and surface water is getting into the sewers.

It is also sealing manholes and lining sewers to stop water entering sewers, as well as installing a new micro-filtration system at the Amersham storm tanks to reduce the environmental impact of spills to the River Misbourne.

The company will initially be spending £2.5 million to carry out a range of initiatives in Chalfont St Peter and the surrounding areas in the Misbourne Valley.

The water firm said its customer representatives would be ‘engaging’ with local business owners over the coming weeks and that access to all shops and businesses would continue, including to the precinct car park.

Buckinghamshire and Chalfont St Peter Parish councillor Isobel Darby welcomed Thames Water’s plans to reduce flooding in the area.

She said: “I am delighted that Thames Water have been working hard over the summer to come up with mitigation measures that will enable the village to remain completely open and sewage free in times of high groundwater.

“They have really been listening and have worked well in partnership with Buckinghamshire Council, Chalfont St Peter Parish Council and others to arrive at this solution.”

The councillor added that the village had ‘suffered’ from intermittent sewer overflows for many years during times of high rainfall and rising groundwater levels.

She said: “These episodes have not only been unpleasant and a risk to the health of our residents, but incredibly damaging to those whose properties have been flooded.”