More than 3,000 people have signed a petition opposing a giant new Thames Water reservoir.

The company is currently consulting residents on plans to build a new build a new 150 billion litre reservoir south west of Abingdon.

Last month it emerged that the company, which has debts of about £15bn, could run out of money by the end of next May.

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The community anti-reservoir group GARD (Group Against Reservoir Development)  and countryside charity CPRE are urging Oxfordshire residents not to miss the two chances of giving their opinion on Thames Water’s reservoir plans.

GARD and CPRE launched a joint petition, calling on DEFRA Secretary of State Steve Reed to call Thames Water’s plans in for a public inquiry.

(Image: Thames Water) The petition now has more than 3,000 signatures and GARD intends to hand it into Mr Reed at the end of August.

At the same time Thames Water has launched an ‘informal’ consultation on the latest reservoir plans, and responses are due by August 28.

Campaigners accuse the water company of putting out misleading information about the proposed reservoir.

They say that pictures of tree-lined embankments will never be realised in practice, as there are strict rules about minimising planting on reservoir slopes to avoid trees’ roots weakening the embankment.

GARD has  employed reservoir experts to criticise the Thames Water design on many issues, and claims that Thames Water bosses have refused to meet them until after the consultation is over.

Dr Derek Stork, chairman of GARD, said: “The designs put forward by Thames are clearly designed to fool the public into thinking this is a country park leisure facility.

"It is not, it’s a huge unnatural structure which must be designed with utmost regard to safety or it will be a liability and a disaster waiting to happen.

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"Thames Water does not allow unrestricted access to their other embankment reservoirs, and you will not see tree-lined embankments there. We must call Thames Water out on this misleading stuff.

(Image: Thames Water) "Thames Water wants to give the impression that it has have received approval for their submitted management plan, and by association, the reservoir.  It has not.

"The Environment Agency has recommended to the Government that the plans should not be approved without a lot of alteration.”

Abingdon town council is also objecting to the reservoir scheme for a number of different reasons and has backed calls for a public inquiry.

One of its concerns is the River Ock flood area, which has been seriously hit by flooding in the past two years, including the car park for the Tesco Extra store off Marcham Road.

Residents can sign the petition by visiting https://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/stopTWreservoir, and learn about GARD’s analysis of the consultation at http://www.gard-oxon.org.uk/.

A Thames Water spokeswoman said: "Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to respond to our public consultation and shared their views on our Interim Master Plan and early design proposals.

“We read every consultation response and they are also independently verified by Ipsos. The feedback gathered will play a vital role in helping to inform the next stage of the design process. 

"We will provide a formal response to the public consultation early next year, and local communities and stakeholders will be invited to have their say on the revised proposals next summer.

“Please don’t miss the opportunity to have your say before the consultation closes on 28th August.”

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About the author 

Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here. 

He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.

His Trade and Tourism newsletter is released every Saturday morning. 

You can also read his weekly Traffic and Transport newsletter.