Closure of Sand Park for 5 months

November 03rd 2022

Many residents of Tregony will have seen the postings on the Tregony Facebook page that something is happening in the Sand Park. 

The parish council was first informed by South West Water in March that they needed to carry out works to improve the waste water and sewage pipes in the vicinity of their facility next to the Sand Park. They advised us about exploratory drilling works to investigate ground conditions in the Sand Park and gave us detailed notice of when this would happen. They also provided plans for the work that would be needed in due course to replace the pipes under the Sand Park. However, they did not advise us of the scale of works required, a start date, or the timescale that was involved. We assumed that they would contact us in due course with this information.

On Tuesday this week, we were alerted by the posting on Facebook (thank you Anita) showing signs put up in the Sand Park by Galliford Try (the contractor who carries out work for SWW) that the car park would be closed from 2 November until end of March 2023. We, as the parish council, received no forewarning of this proposal. We contacted South West Water that day and on Wednesday morning we received an email from SWW with a profuse apology for not contacting us in advance of this move by their contractor. They fully accepted that this was their fault. We met with SWW and Galliford Try on the Sand Park at lunchtime and discussed the situation with them.

At the meeting, SWW and Galliford Try explained the scale of works necessary. It involves installing a very large underground chamber under the Sand Park to hold up storm surges. Running overhead across the car park are Western Power’s 33kv power lines. Because of the size of equipment needed on site to install the tank and new pipes, it is unsafe for them to work under the power lines. Therefore, Western Power have to replace the overhead lines with underground cables. This work is scheduled to be carried out by Western Power starting on 11 November. In order to facilitate it, Galliford Try need to excavate a trench through the Sand Park before Western Power can lay the cables. Galliford Try will start the excavations on Monday 7 November. For safe working reasons, the Sand Park will have to be fenced off securely prior to this. That is why they proposed closing the car park as from yesterday. 

Clearly, SWW and their contractor were at fault by not giving us notice of what was being proposed. However, the works need to be done in order to improve the waste water and sewage system which will be of benefit to all of us and the local environment minimising the sort of incidents that are frequently on the news about discharges of untreated sewage into rivers. There is no benefit in delaying the works. The parish council has agreed, therefore, that we should allow the works to go ahead at this very short notice. 

The new electrical supply works should be completed in a couple of weeks. The works to install the tank and new pipework will commence in early January. The Sand Park will be out of action for the whole period from now until the end of March 2023. We apologise for the inconvenience that this will cause to residents.

Heras Fencing will be erected around the Sand Park within the next day or so.

0 Comments

Related Articles: