RATS (Residents Against Thames Sewer) With no warning, analysis or consultation, Thames Water is proposing to devastate our vibrant, mixed community of 17,000 citizens in South Fulham with the main drilling site for their super sewer. Would you put one of the largest, long-lasting and dirtiest construction sites in London's history 400 meters from nearly 1,000 family homes? Or one just 1,500 meters from more than 15,000 homes? We wouldn't. Would you send your child to one of the 15 schools or nurseries within just 1,000 meters from the site if you knew that they would be exposed to pollution from the construction site and related traffic that is proven to penetrate deeply into the lungs and cause a wide range of health problems, including asthma, bronchitis, eye irritation; emphysema and heart disease can be caused when those particles are absorbed into the blood stream; and cancer? We wouldn't. Would you buy a home at current market values if you knew that you were going to be living on the doorsteps of a major construction site for at least 7 years? Or look out over a 50-foot venting column that would spew noxious gases from the sewer forever? We wouldn't. Would you pay 4000 pounds in total on your Thames Water bill to see this proposed scheme destroy a thriving business park and its jobs for popular local businesses, especially in this challenging economy? We wouldn't. The whole scheme stinks. It stinks of out-of-touch government agencies mandating things based on paper, not people. And it stinks of big business steamrolling over local interests, not to mention our property prices, our public health, and our peace of life.

www.fulhamrats.org