How we developed our plan

We spoke to customers of the six WRSE companies to help us develop our regional plan. You can find out more on our Customer engagement page.

We also worked with a wide range of stakeholders to incorporate their knowledge and expertise on their areas of interest. We established four stakeholder groups that have helped us develop our draft regional plan through challenging and scrutinising our approach.

Key highlights from our engagement include:

  • Working with local authorities to help predict how many people we may need to supply water to in future

  • Engaging with other sectors such as energy, industry and agriculture to understand their future water needs

  • Carrying out a series of consultations on the technical methods we used and our best value decision making framework

  • Working closely with the Environment Agency and our Environmental Advisory Group to develop a range of scenarios to leave more water in the environment by reducing existing abstractions and develop a framework to help us prioritise where this is needed

  • Engaging with more than 2,500 water company customers to understand their priorities

  • Carrying out research with customers on what they value most and the wider benefits they want us to deliver to inform our best value framework

  • Consulting on our emerging regional plan in January 2022 and used the feedback received to inform our draft regional plan, with a further consultation on our draft plan held from November 2022 to February 2023

  • Alongside the consultation on our draft regional plan we carried out research with 1,300 household customers and 400 commercial customers to test their preference for the best value draft regional plan with alternative plans. Our consultation response is available to download.

  • Commissioning independent experts to review key elements of our plan including our investment model, demand forecast and resilience framework.

Engaging with customers and stakeholders has helped shape the main building blocks for our regional plan, such as our Regional Policies and Method Statements for different topics.

Engaging with customers and stakeholders has helped shape the main building blocks for our regional plan, such as our Regional Policies and Method Statements for different topics.

We spoke to customers of the six WRSE companies to help us develop our regional plan. You can find out more on our Customer engagement page.

We also worked with a wide range of stakeholders to incorporate their knowledge and expertise on their areas of interest. We established four stakeholder groups that have helped us develop our draft regional plan through challenging and scrutinising our approach.

Key highlights from our engagement include:

  • Working with local authorities to help predict how many people we may need to supply water to in future

  • Engaging with other sectors such as energy, industry and agriculture to understand their future water needs

  • Carrying out a series of consultations on the technical methods we used and our best value decision making framework

  • Working closely with the Environment Agency and our Environmental Advisory Group to develop a range of scenarios to leave more water in the environment by reducing existing abstractions and develop a framework to help us prioritise where this is needed

  • Engaging with more than 2,500 water company customers to understand their priorities

  • Carrying out research with customers on what they value most and the wider benefits they want us to deliver to inform our best value framework

  • Consulting on our emerging regional plan in January 2022 and used the feedback received to inform our draft regional plan, with a further consultation on our draft plan held from November 2022 to February 2023

  • Alongside the consultation on our draft regional plan we carried out research with 1,300 household customers and 400 commercial customers to test their preference for the best value draft regional plan with alternative plans. Our consultation response is available to download.

  • Commissioning independent experts to review key elements of our plan including our investment model, demand forecast and resilience framework.

Engaging with customers and stakeholders has helped shape the main building blocks for our regional plan, such as our Regional Policies and Method Statements for different topics.

Engaging with customers and stakeholders has helped shape the main building blocks for our regional plan, such as our Regional Policies and Method Statements for different topics.

CLOSED: This discussion has concluded.

Please post any queries you may have here and we will answer them as soon as we can.

  • The only topological aspect about the proposed Abingdon reservoir site worth noting, is that it is flat. It's otherwise a featureless area of land. Given that large parts of the county and other areas of the country also share this feature you haven't explained why Thames Water is so fixated on this site, particularly given the abundance of people and their close proximity to this proposed reservoir. Despite what you state in your response to my first question, I'm not sure you really do recognise the concerns of local communities and the level of opposition. All levels of local authority are publicly opposed to this project, from local people to local councils and the county council itself. You're proposing building the country's largest reservoir, thereby saturating the flood plain and local land, vastly increasing the risk of flooding. Do you even fathom the scale of this? It is unacceptable. The size of the this reservoir is grossly inappropriate, trying to squeeze it in between multiple villages and the impact it will have on people who live there. The entire proposal is completely wrong and needs shutting down. An alternative location should be found, if it doesn't exist in Oxfordshire, then find an alternative County, as its the sort of project that should not be located close to population centers. If Thames Water spent half the effort in fixing leakages they would go a significant way to alleviating water shortages. Moreover, the only real purpose of this reservoir is to sell water to other companies and is really about shareholder value and revenue streams, not about the supply of water or any real consideration for the people impacted. The reservoir provides no benefits to the people which you are proposing to burden this with. Please outline your response to these points.

    P01 asked almost 3 years ago

    Hello, many thanks for your further comments / points. Please feed these into the consultation, via our online feedback survey, and we will consider and address them, as part of our response to all the views we hear. All the best

  • Why is the Abingdon reservoir still being included as part of the 'plan', when it was rejected in 2011? What is the justification/need for locating this reservoir in its current location given its size and proximity to local towns and villages?

    P01 asked almost 3 years ago

    In 2010, a public inquiry was held to examine Thames Water’s draft WRMP (draft WRMP09).  No planning application had been made for the reservoir and as such the inquiry was not specifically about the reservoir.  Thames Water had included 'long term risk' in its plan recognising the future challenges of climate change and environmental protection. The Planning Inspector did not support planning for ‘long term risk’ and programmes of options which had the objective of meeting ‘long term risk’. This was the basis of the Inspector’s conclusions, rather than rejection of a new reservoir. Thames Water complied with the instructions issued by Defra on the amendments that needed to be made to the plan (draft WRMP09) following the Inquiry and the plan was subsequently approved.  

    In the Thames Water area, over 55 potential locations were considered for a new reservoir taking account of a range of factors including proximity to the river, geology and topography. The site at Abingdon was identified as the only site suitable for a  large capacity reservoir. We fully recognise the concerns of the local community and if the reservoir is taken forwards there would be careful planning for the construction phase, with provision of suitable mitigation, guided by local feedback and industry best practice, to reduce the impacts on the local community as far as possible. As part of the Development Consent Order (DCO) process, the detailed proposals would be subject to formal consultation, public examination hearings and appraisal by the Planning Inspectorate.

  • How are WRSE engaging with the Environment Agency and Met Office for long term prediction, modelling and alerting the public? Making the public more aware of water levels and potential droughts, perhaps through TV and Radio weather reports would help, as people may cut usage. Yellow, Amber and Red warnings could be developed, like for severe weather.

    Danielschofield22210 asked almost 3 years ago

    The water companies meet regularly with the Environment Agency to monitor the water resources position and consider the weather projections. Water companies have statutory drought plans which set out the response they will take as water levels start to fall, with one of the first actions being public awareness campaigns. These typically use a range of channels including the use of radio and TV to alert customers to the situation and will be ramped up as the situation worsens. In previous droughts water companies have worked with a range of partners to engage with customers, including on weather reports.  You can find the Drought Plans on each of the water company websites.

Page last updated: 01 Sep 2023, 10:00 AM