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UTILITY Week 16 05 14

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UtILIty WEEK | 16th - 22nd May 2014 | 5 Thames Water has hit back at claims by a Conservative MP that "human error" on the part of the water company caused flooding in his Spelthorne constituency. Thames denied claims by Kwasi Kwarteng that delays in closing a sluice gate caused serious flooding around one of the Thames' tributaries, the River Ash, in Staines-upon-Thames on 11 February. In a letter, Kwarteng said he would hold an adjournment debate in Parlia- ment to "put on public record" the inci- dent and to raise the issue of how water companies are held to account. According to the MP, investigations, led by a group of local residents, revealed that it is likely that the River Ash flooded. "The activation of a local flood preven- tion protocol to shut the sluice gate was delayed by four days by the local water company," he said. However, Thames said it was "not cor- rect" that flooding was caused by human error and refuted the accusation that the closing of its sluice gate was delayed. "We were instructed to close the sluice gate by the agencies co-ordinating the flooding response on the evening of 11 February, and we closed the gate to the Environment Agency's specification that night," a spokeswoman told Utility Week. WatER The Thames Tideway Tunnel project has committed to boosting the number of women in engineering, in support of the Cabinet Office's "Your Life" campaign, launched this week. The company responsible for delivering the £5 billion tunnel said it would increase the proportion of female science, technology, engineering and maths ambassa- dors 10 per cent by 2015. It has also pledged to have an equal gender balance in its work experience place- ments "as far as reasonably practicable" and will encourage a greater proportion of women to apply for graduate and trainee positions. Thames hits back at MP's charges 193% year-on-year increase in consumer complaints according to figures released this week by the Energy Ombudsman for april. More on consumer complaints on p24 £7,300 Cashback offered to households in Scotland as part of the latest phase of the Scottish Government's Green homes Cashback scheme october 2011 the last time UK wholesale gas for prompt delivery was as low as current levels, according to Reuters Point Carbon latest market outlook "I am an intense masochist" Ofgem chief executive Dermot Nolan jokes with the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee on why he took the job "It's important for school children to get first-hand experience of renewables and see science at work" Good Energy chief executive Juliet Davenport at the launch of the Solar Schools campaign, which will see 20 schools across the country receive help to raise funds to install solar panels from the company "Developing a successful shale gas and oil industry in the UK must be an urgent national priority" The chairman of the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, Lord MacGregor, calls on the government to clear the logjam delaying the development of the shale industry or risk losing out on its benefits, p15 analysis

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