THE Jubilee River – which protects 3,200 homes in the Royal Borough – will be out of action as a flood relief channel for weeks due to repair work, prompting fears Wraysbury residents will be put at risk.

The flood alleviation scheme which protects Maidenhead, Windsor, Eton, and Cookham was built by the Environment Agency (EA) in 2002 to reduce the flood risk from the River Thames for local communities.

Following a routine engineering dive inspection, the EA found significant scouring – damage caused by water erosion – on part of the structure to Black Potts Weir in Windsor.

That structure provides protection against scouring – but was showing the effects of the process itself so essential repairs will now be carried out.

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The structural stability of the weir has not been affected but exposure to high flows could cause damage.

The Environment Agency will be installing 1,000 tonnes of “rock armour” before the end of the year to prevent any further scouring occurring during the winter and restore the structure back to its previous condition.

Site preparation started on October 19 (Monday), with repairs beginning on November 2 and continuing throughout December.

The Jubilee River will not operate as a flood relief channel during the maintenance work.

The EA said they are developing alternative arrangements to ensure people’s homes and businesses remain protected from the River Thames.

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Councillor David Cannon (Conservative: Datchet, Horton, and Wraysbury), lead member for parking and public safety, said at a Wraysbury Parish Council meeting on October 19 he will be meeting with the EA to see how this will affect the village.

He said the management of water coming down from the Jubilee River will impact Wraysbury and he will be looking into holding back the water at certain times to reduce the risk during the 10-week repair work.

Cllr Cannon added emergency planners will be looking into preventative and ‘worst case’ scenarios during the Jubilee Rivers maintenance.

Wraysbury parish councillor John Lenton said he was “absolutely appalled” the temporary out of action Jubilee River will make the flood risk “greater” for Wraysbury.

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He said: “Wraysbury is now the single biggest flood risk in the whole entire borough and is the one place that needs to be safeguarded the most from flooding.

“For 10 weeks, when works are undertaken on the weir, it will make our risk greater.”

National Flood Protection Party member councillor Ewan Larcombe (Datchet, Horton, and Wraysbury) said: “The Jubilee River and its current failure is just an extension of all the previous design and construction problems. There have been repeated scour problems on the Jubilee River from the day it was first opened in 2002 and this is just one more.”