Gard Newsletter for Parishes April 2026

GARD UPDATE APRIL 2026

JOIN GARD and add your name to those opposing the proposed reservoir. Go to our website at Group Against Reservoir Development | GARD

Planning permission is not yet applied for: in seven months’ time Thames Water submit their planning application for the proposed giant reservoir, now called The White Horse Reservoir. They must give in a detailed application for a Development Consent Order to the Planning Inspectorate because the proposed reservoir is a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. Vale of White Horse District Council are not the Planning Authority for this. They are opposing the plans, as are Oxfordshire County Council, South Oxfordshire Council and the three MPs whose constituencies are affected: Olly Glover, Layla Moran and Charlie Maynard.

Thames Water have already spent more than £543 million of customer money developing the huge proposed White Horse Reservoir yet there is still no final design, no published  construction time-plan and no clear strategy to address major water-quality risks. Given the dramatic cost escalation, Ofwat must carry out a new independent “best value” reassessment to ensure customers are not locked into the most expensive option without proper scrutiny.

Before any Development Consent Order can responsibly proceed, it is imperative that several fundamental issues are resolved:

• a completed detailed structural design published
• a credible construction timetable and accurate cost forecast detailed
•  full dam-breach and flood-risk assessments modelled and published
• a proven emergency drawdown mechanism modelled and published
• a fully costed and transparent water-treatment strategy published

GARD is opposing this application all the way. Join us now and add your support to the MPs and Councils that already oppose the plans.

Send us your ideas for actions over the spring and summer, to show that we refuse to be ignored. Let’s also show that democratic institutions cannot be trampled.

Write to the Secretary of State emma.reynolds.mp@parliament.uk                                     Write to your MP and Council, approving of their opposition to the proposed reservoir and asking them to continue opposing it. See GARD website, Take Action section.

Advance notice: the GARD Annual General Meeting will take place on May 8^th in Steventon Village Hall Millenium Room at 8pm.

Contact the secretary for information or to give ideas gard.secretary@gmail.com      JOIN GARD