Thames Water has apologised once again to the residents of Chalfont St Peter has floods continue to impact the village.
Heavy rain hit the civil parish at the start of February which saw several roads and car parks overflow with water, causing them to close.
Restaurants, supermarkets, charity shops and independent businesses have felt the effects of these cordons due to a lack of customers, whilst sewage water has also been seen in the area.
One businessman, Engin Baskan, who owns the Yaprak Turkish Restaurant along the High Street, revealed he lost roughly £20,000 in bookings as his establishment was badly impacted by the floods.
Additionally, the village’s Helen & Douglas House charity shop opened the same week when the floods hit last month, with their opening day being a lacklustre affair with very few customers.
A Thames Water spokesperson said: “We’re very sorry that customers are still affected by ongoing high-water levels and flooding in Amersham/Chalfont St Peter.
“The excessively heavy rain that the region has experienced since early January means the groundwater and river levels remain very high in this area and the ground is saturated.
“A significant amount of this water is entering the local sewer system and causing flooding at low points.
“We continue to work around the clock to manage these excess flows that are entering into our network to prevent flooding at Chalfont St Peter and Denham Way.
“We’re doing this by maximising capacity in the sewer network through tankering and the installation of large overpump systems.
“Traffic management will remain in place while we carry out this work for the safety of our engineers and the public.
“While we’re solving this problem we know it's disruptive and inconvenient, but our absolute priority is to avoid further flooding to customers’ properties while the high groundwater and river levels remain high and continue to impact our sewers.
“We will continue to monitor the situation and work with our partners, the Environment Agency and Local Authorities, who manage river flooding and local drainage respectively.”
Due to the prolonged period of wet weather at the back end of 2023/start of 2023, the River Misbourne has flooded at many locations down the valley.
This has had an ‘instant impact’ on the sewer systems in the village, whilst groundwater levels ‘can take weeks’ to reduce following prolonged wet weather.
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