Maple Cross

Maple Cross
Hertfordshire
Location
Grid reference:	TQ034929
Location:	51°37’30"N, -0°30’29"W
Data
Population:	2,000  (approx)
Post town:	Rickmansworth
Postcode:	WD3
Dialling code:	01923
Local Government
Council:	Three Rivers
Parliamentary constituency:	South West Hertfordshire

Maple Cross is a village in the southwest corner of Hertfordshire. It is a village developed mainly since the War and a large proportion of the housing is either council-owned or previously council-owned. The area is close to by Junction 17 of the M25 motorway, which makes up one of the boundaries of the village. It lies south of Rickmansworth. To the south is West Hyde.

Maple Cross is bounded by the M25 motorway. The areas main thoroughfare, Denham Way also forms part of the A412 to Denham and thence Uxbridge. Lanes lead off from the back of the hill towards Chalfont St Giles.

The village is close to the borders of Buckinghamshire (which border is a quarter of a mile west and a mile and a half south) and of Middlesex (which is on the River Colne along the east edge of the industrial estate).

Commercial

Many multi-national businesses have offices in Maple Cross. The UK headquarters of construction company Skanska is based here. The corporate functions of the combined Cadbury and Trebor Bassett confectionery business moved to the area in 2000. Other businesses with offices include Nissan and Renault.

Sewage treatment plant

Maple Cross is the location of the Thames Water Maple Lodge Sewage Treatment Works. The plant, and its sister site at Blackbirds Farm in Aldenham serve the whole of West Hertfordshire; an area with a population of 557,000 people.

The sewage plant's claim to fame is its use as a storage facility for perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) used to extinguish the fire at the Buncefield Oil Terminal after the explosion in 2005. Sludge from the plant was also burnt to generate "green" electricity for the Millennium Dome.

The plant was used in 1952 to test diffused aeration technology and a diffused-air activated sludge purification system has been in continuous use since. The cleaned effluent from this process is discharged into the nearby Grand Union Canal.

Sludge settled from the incoming sewage is treated by retention in enclosed heated anaerobic digestion tanks, a by-product of this process being methane gas which is used for on-site electrical power generation. The main product, digested sludge, is "caked" in industrial centrifuges before disposal to land as fertiliser.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Maple Cross)