Amendments Planned To Cheddar Reservoir Plan

Proving that consultations with the public can sometimes result in changes has been seen to be the case with regard to the plans for the creation of a second reservoir in Somerset. As a result of discussions, Bristol Water now hopes to move the site slightly to the south east after it was pointed out that the public thought that it was too close to the existing site at Cheddar.

Increased water demands must be met

As a further issue, it was announced that there would also be some "quite substantive" changes to plans for the 9,400 mega litre reservoir as a result.

Despite the general feeling that the outcome was generally a positive one, there were still some dissenting voices, predictably from those who are most affected.

Farmer Sarah Parsons said that the reservoir would have a "disastrous" effect on wildlife and plants. Her family farm is on the proposed site of the reservoir, which she says is prime agricultural land.
"It's taking the heart out of the farm... it means we will have to farm in an entirely different way... it's going to change everything and nothing's going to be the same. It's going to have a disastrous effect on the flora and fauna of the area.

Bristol Water spokesman Jeremy Williams said while not everybody was happy about the idea, the majority of people accepted the need for a new reservoir.

"We've moved the reservoir slightly [south east] because people were concerned the gap between the two wasn't wide enough - in the process saving quite a few rather beautiful oak trees and mature hedgerows. The feedback shows we've gone quite a long way about meeting people's concerns [about construction traffic] but we can't hide the fact there will be traffic issues for a relatively short period during constructions.

"We have to have a new source of public water supply and it has to go somewhere... to be quite honest a lot of the land we're talking about floods every year. Next we finalise the planning application from the feedback that we've got which goes into Sedgemoor [council] in December and we wait to see what the outcome is," he added.