The announcement that Thames Water is going to delay its planned new reservoir by at least five years and reduce it in size by a third will be seen as good news by most.

It does, however, leave a hugely unsatisfactory situation.

Thames Water appears to be allowed to hedge its bets with this reservoir.

There is a wide body of opinion that argues it is not needed.

In delaying the reservoir and reducing it in size, Thames Water has gone some way towards admitting the validity of those arguments.

And yet, it can continue to plan for some form of vague reservoir scheme at some point in the future, casting a blight on the whole area.

We are now inclined to believe that Thames Water should be forced to put up or shut up.

The Govenment cannot allow it to get away with leaving an ongoing blight on this area.