ANGRY residents have poured scorn on Thames Water’s offer to relocate them during construction work on its ‘super sewer’.

The company has said it will offer those living in Carnwath Road, Fulham, temporary accommodation during work on the 20-mile long Thames Tunnel.

Work is expected to take between three and seven years if the scheme is given the go-ahead next year.

However, residents in the road are furious that it has taken Thames Water about two years to come up with the offer and say it is, in effect, an admission from the company that the construction will cause unbearable noise and smell.

David McGinty, 54, dismissed the offer and vowed residents would do all they could to stop the project, in which a major shaft to the tunnel will be constructed nearby.

Mr McGinty, who has a grown-up daughter and lives with wife Yukari and son Euan, 14, said: “They are not coming here, it’s as simple as that. We will take them to the European Court of Human Rights because we are entitled to live peacefully. This will take them years to fight so they will go away.”

The sculptor and tourist guide, added that the timing of the offer was ‘ludicrous’.

“Why are they saying this now? It’s complete flannel. They have identified this area without having done a proper sociological impact assessment.

“Offering to move people will cause even more stress for families.”

Neighbour Ernie Henry, 75, has lived in his flat for 20 years and said he would rather suffer noise than move.

“If I went somewhere temporarily, I don’t believe I’d ever get my flat back. I always wanted to live near the river. Why should I go?”

Campaigner Ann Rosenberg said many people living in the vicinity of the proposed shaft site were elderly and disabled.

“People who cannot speak for themselves are trapped because they have no money to move away,” she said.

“They are being treated like cattle – as if they are an inconvenience. Thames Water must be challenged.”

But the supplier’s Thames Tunnel project leader, Phil Stride, said: “We would consider making an offer where you have 24-hour working and a major construction site for a long period.

“The number affected by what we are doing will probably be in the high hundreds or low thousands, for three years.”