THAMES Water customers in the town have been left stunned after it was announced they could see their bills soar to fund a London super sewer that will not benefit them at all.

To pay for the Thames Tunnel scheme in London, the utility wants to hike the annual bill for every customer in Swindon by £65 a year.

The water utility’s bosses have admitted the increase, that every customer in the Thames Water region will need to pay to fund the £3.6 billion sewer, will never fall back to current levels – even after building work for the 20 mile long tunnel is finished.

The Thames Tunnel will be a sewer the width of three London buses, which will run from west to east London, up to 75 metres below ground, broadly following the route of the River Thames.

The scheme, which will capture sewage that would otherwise spill into the Thames and transfer it to a sewage works to be treated, will only benefit people living in the capital and will have no benefit at all for people living in Swindon.

The news has angered people in the town – including charities who look after the elderly and most vulnerable.

A spokeswoman for Age UK in Swindon said: “It will have a big effect on the elderly in Swindon because times are hard now.

“I struggle myself because water rates have jumped up so high each month, and if I find it hard they are bound to find it hard.”

South Swindon MP Robert Buckland has said he will be contacting Thames Water and demanding a meeting after he heard the news.

He said: “At a time when all of us are feeling the pinch when it comes to rising prices, a levy like this beggars belief.

“While I appreciate investment is important, customers across the country and region face quite a dramatic increase in their bills.

“I know a number of my colleagues share the same concerns that this time it not the best time to be raising a levy.

“I think the principal is a worrying one because there must be better ways for raising money for this sort of venture.

“A levy is just an easy solution which puts the burden on hard-pressed residents – particularly people on fixed incomes and older residents.”

Thames Water sustainability director, Richard Aylard, made the admission during questioning from a group of MPs – who met last week to debate the scheme’s pros and cons.

The estimated construction cost of the sewer has more than doubled since the scheme was first mooted in 2002.

The news comes after the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee asked MPs to debate the National Policy Statement (NPS) on Waste Water in the House of Commons and to remove the part of the NPS relating to the super sewer proposal.

If the NPS is adopted, as currently drafted, it would no longer be possible to object to the super sewer ‘in principle’, according to DEFRA.

But the super sewer will not fix the problem completely – Thames Water has acknowledged that once completed untreated sewage will still be discharged into the Thames on average four times year.

It will also do little to increase the capacity of London’s sewerage network where, during storm conditions, basements suffer from sewer flooding.

Simon Markall, a spokesman for water industry watchdog Ofwat, said: “Thames Water’s final plans on the Thames Tunnel are yet to be finalised.

“This includes the costs. We are scrutinising their proposals and working to ensure that costs are kept as low as possible.”

A spokeswoman for Thames Water said: “We have always been clear that the bills of our 13.8 million wastewater customers will rise in line with the costs of the desperately needed Thames Tunnel, which will prevent millions of tonnes of sewage entering the River Thames each year.

“It is only fair that bill increases are shared across our region. Customers outside of London have seen big environmental improvements from our investments in sewage treatment locally, while paying the lowest water bills in the country for most of the past 20 years, as it costs less to serve the capital’s dense population than it does in other areas.

“Ofwat sets limits on water bills in line with the work that water companies need to do, and will crutinise the Thames Tunnel costs to ensurethey are kept as low as possible.

“The average bill is expected to increase by slightly more that £1 a week by 2018, rising to around the national average.”