Thames Water’s latest design proposals for a new reservoir near Abingdon have received more than 150 public responses within three weeks of a consultation being launched.
The UK's largest water company launched the consultation on June 5 in a bid to engage communities and develop the next stage of the design process.
SESRO (South East Strategic Reservoir Option) will produce up to 270 million litres of water per day, providing additional water supplies to 15 million people.
The non-statutory public consultation will take place over a 12 week period, supported by a series of community events.
The first of these will take place on June 27 at Sutton Courtenay Village Hall.
Thames Water’s strategic resource options team, responsible for developing new infrastructure projects to counter the risk of drought, has had the plans for the reservoir turned into virtual reality (VR).
Attendees will be able to use a specialist headset to look around various sections of the reservoir by using hand controlled movement.
The VR system was developed by Atkins in response to community feedback which saw residents show an interest in gaining a deeper understanding of what the final reservoir could look like and its alignment to the existing landscape.
Leonie Dubois, Thames Water’s head of engagement, land and consents, said: "We’re absolutely delighted with the level of response we’ve already received to our public consultation.
"Local communities are certainly alive to the climate change challenge and recognise that we need to invest in more new reservoirs to support future growth.
"Naturally, we’ve heard from people with concerns too, and I’d encourage them to come and see us when we visit towns and villages in Oxfordshire over the next four weeks.
"The opportunity for two-way conversation is an important part of the consultation process, and we genuinely want to hear people’s views and hopefully help to alleviate their concerns."
Lat week, Thames Water’s strategic resource options team assigned a new technical partner for the reservoir.
The Arup Binnies joint venture will work in collaboration with the strategic resource options team to provide technical services in engineering design, environment assessment, planning, and land access and acquisition.
Representatives from the joint venture team will be in attendance at the community events.
Four hundred people have already signed up for the events, which will run from June 27 until July 18, with seven set to take place.
The public consultation will close on August 28, at which point all responses will be considered, and feedback will help to inform future design stages.
Communities and stakeholders will be invited to have their say on the revised proposals at a second public consultation in 2025.
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