Thank goodness – residents of Warberry and Cumberland Road have finally been getting compensation from Thames Water for the damage caused after Thames doubled the water pressure without warning following the replacement of a water mains.

The result? Numerous leaks and serious damage – including a burst boiler causing a ceiling to collapse. At first Thames dodged accepting responsibility, but now they’ve agreed to pay up.

(If you’ve experienced similar problems following replacement work, just get in touch with my office on 020 8340 5459.)

Lovely event. Opening (or launching) a commemorative bench. Am never quite sure of the correct terminology. Anyway Liz Murchie and Maeve McAlliston were two wonderful ladies, founder members of the Hornsey Lane Residents Association who not only cared about the local community – but actively campaigned to improve things. Two of their campaigns were for the 20mph speed limit and the celebrations for Archway Road Bridge.

Families of both women came to see the bench launched and what a fine bench it is – kindly donated by Thames Water – which after five months of work on the bridge was a very welcome goodwill gesture.

Pictured here with Richard Taylor from Living Streets, are relatives and members of Hornsey Lane Residents Association.

Later dash to the launch of the Muslim Youth Forum at Wightman Road Mosque. This is a great initiative which sees Haringey Police Boxing Club and Spurs both there to tell the boys what is on offer free in terms of training. But the Muslim Youth Forum is more than that – in that is specifically aimed at ensuring that young Muslims are part of society – and showing that it is a tiny minority of extremists who damage the good name of good Muslims. Positive activities, positive debates and leadership teaching – these are the wonderful ambitions for this group. Mr Ali (Chair of the Elders), as ever, is spot on – what a lot of wisdom that man has!

Result! Having been so cross with Thames Water over the level of donation offered to MPs (for charity!) for their time in responding to a very very long survey about their services – and putting it on my blog – I arrived in my office to find they had been in touch to say that they heard I was unhappy and are doubling their donation to all MPs.

So in total now Water Aid should get £1,000 rather than £500. So credit to Thames Water for responding quickly and positively!

I agreed to do a phone interview as Thames Water are surveying people as to what we think of their services (as a Parliamentarian as opposed to me as a person with a home). Lots of companies do this and to entice MPs into agreeing to what is around 20 -25 minutes of interview they offer to donate to charity. The Charity is Water Aid – and that is an excellent charity setting up fresh water access in far flung parts of the world. So I said yes.

So the good news is that Thames Water is trying to find out what we think about it, what it should be doing etc etc. The bad news is at the end of the interview, I asked the interviewer what donation I had just earned for Water Aid. It is £10 per MP and £500 in all from all the MPs. This is beyond paltry. The minimum is usually around £50 per MP for this sort of thing and some going as high as £200. MPs do it – because of the charity benefit for it. 25 minutes of mind-numbing questions would not be first on the list to squeeze into a day.

That is why I am publishing this on my blog. It is my only revenge for a company who make Scrooge look generous!

UPDATE: Thames Water have now decided to be more generous.