Afternoon, Surbiton. No issue on Saturday or Sunday — that was me, not a technical fault, and there is no better excuse than that. Back to it. Today: the K2 is not stopping in Berrylands, the Environment Agency has found four permit breaches at the sewage works that treats our waste, Hook Road has gone back to one lane until October — and England won a world championship on Alexandra Drive.
The K2 is skipping Berrylands this morning
TfL logged it just before twenty to twelve this morning. The K2 is on diversion in both directions because of a crane operation on Raeburn Avenue, and every stop from The Roystons through to The Berrylands / Berrylands Station is being missed in both directions.
Which, if you live at that end, is the whole point of the route. And it lands on the bit of Berrylands that still has no trains — the station does not reopen until late September. No train, and this morning no bus either.
What TfL does not tell you is when it ends. The notice has no end time on it at all.
So I went to the permit register. There is one live permit on Raeburn Avenue in it: a BT job, booked 9 to 10 August, minor works, give-and-take traffic management. If that is the job the crane belongs to — and the street and the dates both fit — then the diversion should lift at the end of today. I want to be straight that this is me matching a permit to a bus notice, not TfL confirming anything.
If you are out that way this afternoon and the buses are stopping normally again, tell me and I will put it right tomorrow.
Four breaches at the sewage works that treats ours
An Environment Agency inspection report, published this morning by Kingston Nub News, finds Thames Water's Hogsmill Sewage Treatment Works in breach of its environmental permit on four counts. Hogsmill treats the wastewater from Kingston, Surbiton and the surrounding catchment. That is ours.
The four, as reported:
1. Not enough storm storage — rated “significant impact”. The storm tanks hold significantly less than the 31,182 cubic metres the permit requires, which the Agency expects to “significantly increase frequency and duration of storm discharges from the site”. In plain English, sewage into the Thames at Kingston.
2. The fix is three years late. The scheme to expand that storm tank capacity was due to finish in March 2025. Thames Water has now told the Agency it does not expect to finish until 2028.
3. Failed flow monitoring — the equipment measuring flow passed forward for treatment failed its certification after officers found return liquors were being counted twice. That undermines confidence that storm discharges only happen when they are supposed to.
4. Uncontrolled discharge during storms — unprocessed site returns going out through the storm outlet, which the site is not licensed to do.
The Agency's own spill data in the report shows storm discharges every year since at least 2021, including 33 spills totalling 186.75 hours in 2023. Its stated enforcement response is “Investigation”.
The timing is the sharp bit. The inspection took place on 11 May. Four days later, on 15 May, the stretch of Thames at Ham and Kingston was designated London's first official bathing water on the river. Hogsmill sits about five kilometres upstream of it, on the report's own reckoning.
The campaign group SOLAR is pushing a government petition for higher standards on new and upgraded sewage infrastructure. I checked the live count myself this morning: 38,853 signatures. It needs 100,000 to be considered for a debate in Parliament.
Reported by Tilly O'Brien, Kingston Nub News, this morning. I have not seen the Environment Agency report itself — the detail above is their reading of it, and I have said so rather than dress it up as mine. Signature count checked directly on the parliamentary petitions site just after midday.
Hook Road, and I spoke too soon
On Friday I told you the permit that had been running on Hook Road since 1 June expired that night, and that it was the closest the road had been to finished since spring. It lasted the weekend.
There is a new entry on TfL's road feed, starting at 7am this morning: on the A243 Hook Road, both directions, between Hook Junction and Bridge Road, restrictions are in place for UKPN works with lane two closed in both directions. The end date on it is 18 October.
Ten weeks, then. It is a lane closure rather than a full closure, so it will cost you minutes rather than a route, but if Hook Road is your commute you now know what the rest of the summer looks like.
England won it
Last week I kept telling you there was a world team championship happening on a residential street in Surbiton and that you could walk in for nothing. On Sunday it was decided, and England won the MacRobertson Shield.
England sealed it with a victory over New Zealand just before 6pm on Sunday. The trophy was presented by the Chief Executive of Croquet England to the winning captain, Samir Patel — who is a member of Surbiton Croquet Club. So the world title was won on Alexandra Drive by a side captained by a man who plays there.
Surbiton had not hosted this since 2010. If you took the walk down there last week on the strength of this newsletter, you picked the right week to do it.
Straight from the club: Adrian, the honorary secretary of Surbiton Croquet Club, wrote in on Sunday evening with the result. I was not there and I have not seen it reported anywhere else yet, so this is the club's own account rather than mine. He has offered photographs of the closing ceremony — if they arrive, one will run tomorrow.
The 281: the last word, and I was wrong
Last week I told you TfL's route data showed the 281 no longer running down Penrhyn Road. Then a reader said the buses were sailing past the university exactly as they always had. Then Enid settled it properly: she rode the 281 from Tolworth station to Kingston on Saturday, and a different one back.
It went along Penrhyn Road in both directions. All three of the university stops were open and served. Both drivers told her there had been bus stop closures recently. So the buses are where they always were — it was the data that moved, and I trusted the data over the road. If you took my suggestion to catch the 71 instead, you did not need to.
One oddity survives, and it is the one that would actually matter to you if you could not see out of the window: the on-board announcements are still not acknowledging those stops. Enid reports silence from Surbiton Road all the way to Brook Street, and the bus announcing Kingston Hall Road while it drove down Penrhyn Road and pulled in at the university. She is ringing the garage this morning.
That is the file closed. Thank you to everyone who got on a bus to check something I could only look up.
Buses. The K2 as above. Everything else — K1, K3, K4, 71, 281, 406, 418, 465 and the S3 — is on a Good Service with nothing logged against it.
Finishing today. Langley Avenue (UK Power Networks), Surbiton Road, and Thames Water's end of Elmbridge Avenue. The council's own Elmbridge Avenue works run on to the 18th.
Running to Friday the 14th. Manor Way and Tolworth Road, both council jobs, both with some carriageway taken.
Towards Chessington. On the A243, two-way lights at the Bridge Road junction until the 13th, and temporary signals at the Fairoak Lane junction for Thames Water until the 15th.
The long ones. The Ewell Road cycle scheme grinds on to 25 January — multi-way signals on Ewell Road, closures on Ditton Road and Kingsdowne Road at the junction end.
The usual caveat. The permit register I hold is July's. Anything filed this month — emergencies especially — will not be in it, which is exactly how Raeburn Avenue would have caught me out if the crane had turned up a day later. If your street is dug up and it is not here, that is the gap, and a reply from you closes it faster than the paperwork does.
The week ahead
Today. Lego building at Surbiton Library on Ewell Road, 3pm to 5pm, free, drop in, any age as long as a grown-up comes too.
Tomorrow. Once Upon a Beat at Surbiton Library, 10.30am, musical storytelling for three to sevens, free but book through the libraries site. And in the evening, the free walk-and-talk group for men meets at Surbiton station, Glenbuck Road entrance, 6.30pm — weekly, no booking, just turn up.
Wednesday. The council's Active for All Sports Day at Chessington Sports Centre, 11am to 3pm, free, with more than twenty local clubs and providers on site. Full Cycle are due there with free bike repairs. Also Wednesday: inclusive family cycling with Wheels for All at the Weir Archer centre, 1pm to 3pm, free and adapted bikes provided; and family bowls at King George Field in Chessington, noon to 4pm, four pounds a head.
Thursday. A new jam night at the Surbiton Flyer, 8.30pm to 11.30pm, the 13th and again on the 27th. Musicians and listeners both welcome, fronting artists changing each time. Richard, who runs the place, sent the details over on Friday.
Saturday is a busy one. The Farmers' Market returns to Maple Road, 9am to 1pm — third Saturday of the month, up to forty stalls, run by volunteers with the stall fees going to local causes.
Same day, the railway goes awkward again. Effingham Junction is closed all weekend, Saturday and Sunday. Waterloo to Guildford via Cobham trains are diverted after Surbiton and terminate at Hampton Court, with buses between Surbiton and Guildford via Cobham. The Epsom-line Guildford trains turn back at Dorking.
And on Saturday night at the Flyer, Sam Rex, 9pm, part of live music every Saturday through August — Gianluca on the 22nd, Average Joe on the 29th.
⛅ Weather. Dry today, a cloudy start clearing through the afternoon, topping out around 27°C and down to about 17°C tonight. Tomorrow much the same, dry and 27°C.
Wednesday is the one to plan for — the forecast has it at 31°C and dry. If you are taking children to the sports day in Chessington, that is four hours outdoors in the low thirties. Hats, water, shade.
A lot of you joined over the weekend and wrote back to say what you want out of this — roadworks that are actually accurate, shops opening and closing, markets, restaurant offers, what the councillors are up to, gigs. All noted, and all of it is easier when you tell me. Three of today's items came in as replies.
If your street is dug up, if something has paper over the windows, if there is a gig in a pub garden — hit reply. It reaches me, and it usually reaches everyone else the next morning.
Have a good Monday,
Mike
Surbiton Daily · a short email every morning about our bit of south west London. Written for the 590 of us who read it. Got something for tomorrow? Reply to this email — every reply reaches a person, not a robot.