Reservoir application in.

[Mr Gus]

Time has passed to have a public write up the 2019 reservoir failure by the environment agency..
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... ve-summary

It was released to the press that a new application in Cambridgeshire for another reservoir ..details are murky, location undecided, consultation yet to happen etc etc, ..wonder how long that's been on the cards?

If it happens here again then it is going to draw again from the river ouse, grafham water, built in the mid 1960's is the 8th biggest UK reservoir, but 3rd in volume!? how the scaling up would apply in a new one I can only guess, there are 2 but pumps one at Perry (directly adjacent to Graham water) & one linked some miles away in Offord cluny, on the Buckden bank side of the river with a long old access road which most locals fail to register what is at the end there & it's connection.

The 1960's development provided water for Milton keynes, bedford etc (planned growth that's technically miles away) just as Rutland does for Peterborough area.
Graham swallowed up 1500 odd acres of farming land, requires a pretty sum of energy, ..to date I don't think the EA & Anglican water has bothered with nearby solar (nor on the pitched support bank piles around perry) ..something that would have to be considered with any new reservoir these days (& with good reason) it has a 10 mile circumference so is not small by any means, ..The place is flogged primarily for fishing (hybrid salmon trout) & sailing club, but over The past 20 odd years has been an expensive "residential" experience "adventure" centre flogged automatically to parents of kids at schools only a couple of miles away to increase revenue, "mugging" by the local combined council authorities with pressure on parents by school teachers to go or miss out being part of the herd, ..a scam in my book.

(We at least went as far as wye valley / forest of dean in my day ..actually necessitating a hired bus, compared to this up the road & the same flat landscape bar the man-made bank inclines for the reservoir)

The car parking has been pay at the barrier for 25 odd years monetizing all aspects of the land & restricting access to those who pay (in the countryside you are more vehicle reliant) one car park used to be popular for dog walkers at all hours, allowing for space & silence which dropped off overnight, the road leading to it is a fast road, no street lighting & therefore limited safety in all but good daylight conditions, ...for many a bike trip involves a car & a circuit, there are / were no buses connecting the villages adjacent to the reservoir so it remains off limits to many until you got a car, hardly open access for the locals who were told it was going to be on their doorstep.

From the word go the only legitimate access to the water was via the private membership sailing club (see Flickr for the mad architecture of the time as part of the build) it really cut out the locals use for many years, paths were only really installed & joined up to any degree when the commercial viability of mountain biking (in an otherwise flat landscape) was concerned circa 1990 for family leisure cyclists.

Anyway, I don't know to what capacity the offord cluny pumping station is running at, big, sounds noisy as you approach it by land, & therefore whether it has surplus capacity built in to abstract more river water but looks a good bet for Anglican water to expand upon & save investors money on infrastructure already in place, so I'm sure a best value compulsory govt purchase of land link up may be on the cards ..again.



Somehow though I don't think solar will feature much on the water of any new reservoir to mitigate power used & evaporation, some 10 years after Graham was built we had the 76 drought, which turned much of it to semi baked mud, ..something to avoid in deployment this time round.

[Mr Gus]

Cost for grafham were cited as being 10 million quid back in the day. ..let's wait & see if it hits the billion mark for a new one of comparable size.
& Whilst we are at it...

"River-flow rates in England at lowest point since 2002, data shows"
https://www.theguardian.com /environment/2022/aug/26/river-flow-rate-england-water-drought-environment-data


Which begs the question why no water harvesting measures on new builds "low flow loo's" ain't even a sticking plaster to what's required every time new houses go up.

[Stig]

Which begs the question why no water harvesting measures on new builds "low flow loo's" ain't even a sticking plaster to what's required every time new houses go up.

Does happen in Cornwall, sort-of. A mate of mine moved to a new build in Bodmin last year and that uses grey water for flushing loos, not sure if that includes rainwater or just recycled bath/shower water etc.

[Mr Gus]

Was this a necessity of the local council to do this?
Small individual build, or estate build?

If it were a small build, yes I can understand councils stipulating, or builder including it for a variety of reasons, ...BUT, big home builders don't typically do any of this as standard, build (often badly) flog & run, ..who was the member at the old place who fought for a good while to get insulation installed where there "should" have been plenty, under the warranty plan?

[Oldgreybeard]

Years ago, before the government abolished the Code for Sustainable Homes, there were points to be gained by developers including grey water storage and recycling that meant that some chose to do it. Not far from here there's a small estate of "affordable homes" that all have grey water tanks, and rainwater tanks as well, I believe. The government were lobbied by the developers to scrap the CfSH legislation on the basis that it increased their costs . . .

[Mr Gus]

..but there is no better time, nor cheaper to buy in bulk & install as part of an estate build, which we discussed elsewhere.

Big dirty pockets full of cash exchanged no doubt.

[Oldgreybeard]

..but there is no better time, nor cheaper to buy in bulk & install as part of an estate build, which we discussed elsewhere.

Big dirty pockets full of cash exchanged no doubt.

There were always very strong rumours about brown envelopes being handed around where we used to live. The chairman of the planning committee always seemed to drive around in a new Range Rover, despite living on benefits in a council house.

[Mr Gus]

I was just going through old news (2012)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-n ... e-17189858

"Millions of litres of extra water could be pumped into Northamptonshire to increase supplies for the county.

Anglian Water has submitted plans for two new booster pumping stations to bring in ready-treated water from Grafham Water in Cambridgeshire.

Northamptonshire is still in drought conditions after below average rainfall this winter.

The company said it wanted to spend £8m to build the pumping stations at Melchbourne and Wellingborough.

Councillors in Wellingborough are expected to reach a decision on the application by the end of March.

Anglian Water said the plans would relieve pressure on Pitsford Reservoir, near Northampton, which is currently only 60% full.

Grafham Water supplies 320 million litres of water a day and up to 80 million litres is currently sent to parts of Northamptonshire.

Steve Swan from Anglian Water's special project team said: "Once complete, this scheme will allow us to increase the flow through the water main from Grafham by about 40 million litres a day."


That's a lot of additional abstraction, an extra 40 million litres a decade ago, which was cheaper to network through pipes & pumping stations than build a new reservoir (which gets filled from a river anyway)

Wonder what "needs" are in 2022 (or rather wants) ..we are forever being told we are the driest region but more water is being taken from here, ..hmm