Mogden Community
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DRAFT
CONTACT: MS Jill Sanders
Tel: 020 8941 8881
Email Jill Sanders
Background Information The website dates from from autumn 2000 and is for everyone concerned with Thames Water's major sewage treatment plant in Twickenham, Middlesex, England:
The communities most closely involved in any particular issue are the people who know most.
This is a community website made by Online Communities Ltd, a not for profit company supported entirely by voluntary effort in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
Primary Sponsor: Online Communities Ltd and the people suffering adverse impacts from Mogden Sewage Treatment Plant.
Budget: None -all done without funding
Project End Date: Ongoing and current
Project rationale and objectives
The website was made to inform all local people about the history and workings of the giant sewage treatment plant that takes waste water from over 2m homes in North and West London and to enable those living close to it to log adverse impacts and get those adverse impacts recognised, addressed and improved..
The idea is to inform local people about the plant, first established on site in the 1930s before the area was so heavily populated, its history, how it works, the methods used, etc.
Another objective is to be inclusive of all opinion, including Thames Water's.
A most important objective is to enable local people to keep a public record of the adverse impacts they experience from the plant, which are considerable.
Concept An attractive community website was created. Before this, data that local people sent through about environmental impacts of the sewage treatment works, as complaints to the two local councils (Richmond and Hounslow) and to Thames Water, had been withheld. There was no return of their data to the local people so they had no overview of the how many complaints had been made or the details of those complaints. They had no good evidence of the extent of the problems suffered by the communities living around the plant.
Mogden.org.uk allows residents to log their complaints and publish the record online for all to share as a common resource and reference.
It also acts as a reference for the ongoing legal developments. The changing situation is published on Mogden.org, following the resident' mass action legal case regarding house prices and quality of life, and the courts' involvement through the local authorities' enforcement processes.
Target Audience All those living around the Mogden sewage treatment plant, local elected members, lawyers, policy and decision makers at all levels, Thames Water management, industry regulators.
What is being delivered? The data logged online is proving invaluable and it has changed the attitude and behaviour of the regulatory authorities at all levels, with an associated benefit to other communities suffering similar odour and insect problems.
The details of complaints were - and still are - posted online by members of Mogden Residents' Action Group, a community group set up by those living around the plant to campaign against odour and insect nuisance from Mogden. The details have given all parties an accurate record over several years now of smells and insects, by geography, weather, date and time. There are hundreds of records online and it makes interesting and informative study.
Communication Activity Local people maintain the information, giving legal updates, latest news from the regulatory authorities, and posting the full record of complaints.
Successes The abatement notice issued by Hounslow Council over two years ago requiring Thames Water to abate the odour nuisance has been the subject of extensive legal battles by Thames Water. The upshot is that the council has finally secured the right to enforce the abatement notice. Thames Water's case was based on Best Environmental Practice, but the online record disputes that. The evidence online in the form of all the hundreds of first-hand complaints made by local residents provides valuable and unarguable evidence of the adverse impacts from Mogden Sewage Treatment Works for those living close by.
The water regulator Ofwat, in its five year determination issued this year, has set aside over £40m to "put a lid" on Mogden to contain the worst of the odours. This is one of the main outcomes that residents have been hoping for.
Limitations None evident at this stage.
Academics and Students As a study of the adverse impacts of sewage treatment works in populated areas, Mogden.org.uk makes compelling reading. The viewer can gain great insights from the evidence of residents about how persistent unpleasant odours and frequent insect plagues damage their quality of life. It is all heartfelt and first hand.
It is a study in people power and how the internet can tap it to even up the playing field beneath the feet of the ordinary citizen and powerful global industries and governmental policy and decision makers. It is a lesson!
Successes Mogden.org.uk is succeeding in getting recognition of the residents' problems and in getting better regulation of the industry, as well as greater funding for alleviation of the pollution problems.
Evaluation
Besides the proof of the pudding with the successful court action (from the residents' and council's point of view, anyway) and the funding for covering the worst areas of the sewage treatment plant, hear this from the local residents:
"The judgement vindicates everything local residents have been saying for years about mismanagement on the site, with last week's vulnerability to power failure a classic example (after a 4 hour power cut, odour complaints have reached record levels and are continuing to flood in)."
Residents appreciate how the website has been able to empower them: "I have updated the Mogden community website at http://www.mogden.org.uk today with complaints about odour and mosquitoes received by the Mogden Residents Action Group during October and the first week of November 2004. There were only 8 complaints received in October compared to 35 in October 2003. However, following a power failure at Mogden on 2 November, complaints for the first week in November have reached an all time record of 43 in a week and are continuing to flood in."
Chairman of MRAG: "Certainly we believe the site has been central to the success of our campaign, from getting local MPs and council officers involved, to attracting press interest (we were even interviewed by a German TV crew a couple of weeks ago, who found the campaign on line) and, above all, making residents feel it is worth complaining."
And from another MRAG member: "In my own case and that of the committee on which I serve, namely the Mogden Residents Action Group, we would never have had our voice heard at the House of Commons,nor would we have been granted an audience with Lord Whitty, to state our views on the appalling handling of Mogden STW by Thames Water, had it not been for the OnLine Communities Website. The Community Website has been vital to our campaign and has allowed all to voice their opinions on Thames Water's handling of their Mogden operation. Thames Water too, albeit after much persuasion from MRAG, saw the benefits of working with the community websites rather than against them. It's an equal opportunity for everyone to express their views with no delays and no cost. What a pleasure!
"The site was even noted by a German television crew who contacted us to participate in a program they were doing on Thames Water's parent, the giant German RWE Group. Community Websites are vital and are immensely powerful and we should be eternally grateful to those who give of their own free time to keep them going. These gentlefolk deserve the full support of the community."
The assembled shared information allows residents to plot and map the adverse impacts according to weather conditions, plant break-downs, and other factors. There is no other mechanism in place, as they attest: "The ever-expanding water companies are increasingly a law unto themselves in the UK with a series of discrete and ineffectual regulators. For example, odour nuisance from UK sewage works is solely the responsibility of the local council environmental officers - none of whom has so far managed to make an abatement notice stick.
"The Government's so-called customer champion WaterVoice is also not interested in odour nuisance, a view which seems to be shared by its all-too-close sister Ofwat - hence the almost total lack of approval for odour improvement schemes in the initial determinations for water companies' investment proposals for the next five years. With regard to sewage works performance, Ofwat seems to rely entirely on complaints to WaterVoice and data from the Environment Agency - which in turn relies on information supplied by the water companies ...
"Mogden.org.uk is needed!"
What could happen next? The court has given Thames Water two years to put measures in place that will ensure compliance with the abatement notice, and residents will keep up their public complaints now and into the future to ensure that the issue does not drop off any radar.
With the latest determination from Ofwat, with funding to cover some areas, the residents will be able to continue to monitor the impacts as this work progresses.
Additional benefits? Satisfying to see democracy online working in this way and information that should rightfully belong to the community, but denied to the community, go public for the benefit of the community.
Benefits to Authority Good local councils can see that with people power they can work together to get the result they seek; their hand is strengthened.
Financial benefits predicted? Better quality of life and improved environmental conditions will enhance the area and houseprices there.
In what areas could the scope of the project have been broader? Mogden.org.uk was created for a purpose and it fits the purpose for which it was made.
What other limitations restricted the success/benefit of the project? e.g. budget, time, public enthusiasm At times public enthusiasm has waned, but nevertheless the local residents have persisted and in succeeding they have achieved a great victory for ordinary local people over massive commercial interests and somewhat indifferent governmental regulation.
What obstacles were encountered? It was sometimes difficult to find local residents to keep the complaints up to date - it is a lot of work to assemble and publish them. There were initial difficulties with Thames Water which greeted the website with some hostility. There was a lack of understanding in some quarters about the purpose and objectives of the website - maybe still is.
This week Thames Water has decided to break the reciprocal links with Mogden.org.uk - perhaps because the chairman, John Sexton, who worked with the website, has stepped down to be replaced by an RWE counterpart from Germany.
What quantitative measures were used to assess the project? The number of complaints featured on the website is exceptional and the information contained therein informative in its detail and immediacy.
What qualitative measures were used to assess the project? I refer to the residents' quotes given above. If the eventual outcome is an improvement in pollution levels, there will be a greatly enhanced quality of life and sense of wellbeing for all those living and working around Mogden.
Also refer to the successes in court.
Lessons learnt Intelligent and open public data will make a powerful case for local people and put a powerful tool at their disposal.
How could the obstacles encountered be avoided by other councils undertaking this type of project? Councils could not undertake a project like this. It can only be done from the community perspective. This is an example of where communities must take control and this is why I say we must encourage community websites. We don't want it all done by gov - it can't all be done by gov and must not all be done by gov.
How could the usability of the products of the project(if applicable) be increased? This website goes back some years. We now have a simpler, quicker, better and more direct content management system.
How were the products of the project used in further work? This is a one-off, but in principle it could have wide applications. There must be countless comparable and similar situations.
Stakeholders: overwhelmingly the local residents; Thames Water; all those who used it for reference and for evidence.
Further Information: See it all at http://www.mogden.org.uk or through http://www.twickenham-online.co.uk - community links.
Contacts: John Inglis at Online Communities (www.oncom.org.uk) Author: Jill Sanders