Please help!

Thames Water display latest proposals Sept 2011

If you have already submitted your questionnaire, please email us to let us know what you said. If you still would like the chance to comment and were not able to, please also send us an email and we will send this on to Thames Water

June 2011

The Appeal was dismissed in January 2011 (please see NEWS section) in January 2011

Unfortunately Thames Water plan to resubmit their hugely unpopular plans with only minimal changes in the near future. Once this happens, we will need, once again, to voice our objections if we still feel that the plans are insensitive and inappropriate. Please visit again soon to find out more about how you can help. Your support is, as always, invaluable, because every single objection makes a difference.

Other ways to help

Below are some of the other ways you can help the campaign, while we await a decision. We'd like to thank everyone for your ongoing support!

Visit us at Twitter!..... Join our Facebook Group!

  1. Write to the local press! Write or email your views on Thames Water, and what YOU think should happen to the site, to GetReading. (Click here to send an email)
    and the Chronicle (Click here to send an email)
  2. Download a copy of our Banner!! Print it out and put it in your car to show your support and spread the word!
  3. Do YOU have any recorded sightings of wildlife on the reservoir? Please please click here to email us about it

Why is there such fierce opposition to the proposed redevelopment?

  • The latest plans, whilst being an improvement on what was originally proposed in 2008, still include buildings which would dwarf and overshadow the surrounding streets in particular the tiny Victorian terraces on Western Road. The original planning brief for the site, put together in 1997, specifies no higher than 2 storey buildings (current TW plans include 2.5 and 3-storey buildings and are therefore still designed with maximum profit in mind rather than a development which would be appropriate and sympathetic to hte surrounding area).
  • Traffic and access - the access via the congested Bath Road would have a significant impact to the already busy road and the junction with Berkeley Avenue, which is a recognised traffic bottleneck. Stringent mitigation measures would need to be in place to cater for this.
  • Public transport into the town centre and London is also already at capacity during rush hour: allowing more indiscriminate development without investment into the transport infrastructure would further exacerbate this problem
  • The decommissioning process would affect the bus route into town. Buses along this route come from as far as Newbury, Mortimer and Calcot. Mitigation measures must be offered to cater for this.
  • The reservoir is home to many diverse species, many rare or protected. This is the last sizeable green space within the centre of the town - there is nowhere else for them to go. TW propose a wildlife area to mitigate damage to the wildlife - this would need to include a comprehensive management scheme to ensure that the wildlife would be given a chance to survive
  • Loss of a vital 'green lung' in an area already recognised by the Council as being deficient in green open space. Whilst the current proposals include green areas, the local community feels that it is still not enough to compensate.
  • The Reading Biodiversity Action Plan states clearly that Reading aims to be 'leading by example' to 'protect, conserve and enhance Reading's diversity of wildlife'. Allowing a 150-year-old site containing rare and diverse wildlife and plants to be completely demolished, is not in keeping with this initiative
  • The Reading Core Strategy devotes a section to the importance of Open Spaces, including a commitment to the 'protection and enhancement of the biodiversity of open spaces'. The reservoir site is exactly the kind of area that the Council should be striving to protect.
  • The tree lined frontage may disappear, causing loss of visual amenity
  • There are many empty buildings already standing in the centre of town which could first be used for housing, rather than flattening yet another green site
  • The proposed development offers more houses, more cars, more pollution, which means less natural wildlife and wildlife habitat, poorer views and reduction in quality of life
  • What sort of a Reading do we want to be inhabiting in 10 years time? Protecting this site from inappropriate development would go some way to stopping Reading from becoming a soulless, concrete jungle, and help retain some of our national heritage

Local Residents (Updated June 2011)


As local residents, once the latest application is submitted, you can raise the following additional objections to RBC to oppose the development, and we URGE you to personalise the draft letter and send it in!

  • Loss of visual amenity: Surrounding residents have clear views of the unspoilt area that is the reservoir site
  • Overlooking issues - houses in the surrounding streets would have bedrooms overlooked by front rooms of dwellings in the proposed development
  • Loss of outlook: proposed plans include buildings up to 3-storeys high. This would change the skyline for houses and flats as far as several streets away
  • Overbearing: The 3-storey high buildings would tower above the tiny Victorian-style houses of the adjacent streets
  • Overshadowing: the surrounding streets would suffer loss of light at various times of the day
  • The 'Village of RG1' consists predominantly of Victorian-style housing and small narrow streets: the proposed development with its 3 storey high apartment blocks would not be in keeping with the character of the area
  • The reservoir forms a unique wildlife haven within the centre of Reading. The diversity of animal and plant species is a tribute to the conservation management of Thames Water - it should be preserved and safeguarded for our children and grandchildren to enjoy
  • The increase in noise to what is currently a quiet and tranquil area would have a detrimental effect on the quality of life of residents
  • The increase in dust from the decommissionning and the construction work would have a significant impact on the ability of residents to enjoy their properties
  • The reservoir is already in an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) - any new development in this area will exacerbate this
  • Brunswick Street - an already tiny and ill-equipped road - would become a thoroughfare for anyone trying to drive to the new development from the Tilehurst Road side of Reading
  • The proposed development offers no benefits whatsoever for local residents
  • the reservoir embankments deaden the traffic noises of Bath Road, Tilehurst Road and of the British Rail Southern Line and give an element of privacy fo the local residents
  • The reservoir restricts both vehicular and pedestrian traffic to surrounding roads and this, amongst other qualities of the site, has enabled the survival and growth of a very real community spirit. This would all be lost if the development as it currently stands were to be permitted.