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Vale challenge to reservoir successful

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Monday 2 March 2009

The Vale of White Horse District Council has welcomed Thames Water's announcement that its plans for future water supply have changed.

Responding to consultation on its Draft Water Resources Management Plan, Thames Water said that plans to build a reservoir on land between Steventon, East Hanney and Drayton will be postponed for five years and when required, the reservoir will only need to be two thirds of its original size.

The company said that factors which significantly impact on water supply and demand forecasts like the economic downturn and revisions to population forecasts had played a part in the change of heart.

In August the Vale challenged the water company's case for the reservoir, in particular its predictions of how much water individuals would use.

Other main concerns were that areas of new and continuing research should be completed before a decision was made, and that other supply options had not been given due consideration.

The Vale argued that the case for a reservoir of the scale proposed had to be robust and compelling and that Thames Water's case was neither.

Council Leader Tony de Vere, who chairs the Vale's Reservoir Advisory Group (RAG), said: "I am pleased that Thames Water has agreed that there is too much uncertainty to continue with this plan for at least the time being.

"None of us can know what the situation will be in five years time and there may be yet more reasons as to why this reservoir should not be built.

"We hope Thames Water spends the next five years doing much greater research into the alternatives, as we suggested last year."

Cllr Terry Cox, who is Vice Chairman of RAG, said: "Thames Water said it needed a reservoir in 1990, then changed its mind and it would appear history is repeating itself.

"While I welcome Thames Water's acknowledgement that the case is simply not strong enough at the moment, I do have concerns about the people who live near the proposed site, having the spectre of this reservoir hanging over them for another five years. I hope Thames Water spends the next five years wisely for the sake of those residents."