Portsmouth Water intends to submit a separate planning application for a new pipeline to supply water for the proposed £120 million Havant Thicket Reservoir from Bedhampton Springs.

The water company will make a separate larger application for all other aspects of the scheme, to Havant Borough Council and East Hampshire District Council later this year.

Outlining its reasons for a separate application, Portsmouth Water said this would enable the pipeline to be delivered more effectively and efficiently, to address technical planning conditions very specific to this which would be best handled in their own right.

Nothing else related to the pipeline or the rest of the reservoir project will change – the proposed pipeline route, construction techniques and timeline which were the subject of a recent consultation all remain unchanged.

Highlights of the consultation, which ran from 11 May to 8 June 2020, included:

• The dedicated Havant Thicket Reservoir Facebook page had over 102,000 page views via the 25 consultation posts that were published
• The collection of consultation videos, covering a range of topics, were viewed more than 9,700 times via Facebook, YouTube and the dedicated consultation website, which itself had just under 4,200 visits
• Six public consultation webinars were held, with a total of 156 people taking part and putting their questions and comments directly to Portsmouth Water’s panel of experts – the recordings of the webinars have been watched over 200 times too
• 1,350 printed copies of the consultation brochure and feedback form were sent out to people living in the area around the proposed reservoir site and those from further afield who took up the offer to provide a hard copy of the brochure and form on request.

Bob Taylor, Chief Executive Officer at Portsmouth Water, said:

“It’s great that we’ve received a large amount of feedback on our proposals, more than 1,600 consultation responses in total. We worked hard to make it easy for people to learn more about what we want to deliver and have their say during our consultation, whether that was online, by phone or post. So, we would like to say a big ‘ Thank you’ to everyone who took the time to give their views.”

“What people have told us will help shape the planning applications we will submit to Havant Borough Council and East Hampshire District Council later this year. We heard views across a variety of different topics, including lots of support for the community facilities we’re proposing, in particular, the new wetland we want to create.”

“We also had helpful comments on the options for the reservoir access road, the route for the reservoir pipeline that’s needed, the existing woodland on the site and our extensive plans for delivering an overall benefit to the environment. For example, we’re committed to replanting and improving at least 110 hectares of woodland to create new and enhanced habitat – both on and around the reservoir site and further afield.”

Portsmouth Water is now analysing the responses and will publish a ‘You said, we did’ consultation report in August.

Havant Thicket Reservoir is earmarked for a 160-hectare site (between Staunton Country Park and Havant Thicket, in Havant), which is owned by Portsmouth Water.

At 1.6km from east to west and 0.8km from north to south, the reservoir will hold approximately 8.7 billion litres of water and will able to supply up to 21 million litres of water each day.

It would be filled in the winter from surplus water pumped from the Bedhampton springs in Havant.

The reservoir is included in the local planning authorities’ local plans and Portsmouth Water is working in partnership with neighbouring Staunton Country Park, Hampshire County Council and Forestry England as it develops the plans.

Click here to hear Bill Irvine, Lead design Engineer for the project, outline the design and construction proposals for the reservoir on the Waterbriefing Watch channel

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