THAMES Water is consulting with the parish councils in Steventon and East Hanney about the possibility of building a reservoir between these two villages.

Since 1975, Thames Water has considered options to increase the water available to London residents and the reservoir between Steventon, East Hanney and Drayton has been one of those options.

In 2010 a public enquiry ruled that Thames Water had not proven the case for a reservoir of 100 million cubic metres of water to supply the South East.

The latest plans are for a reservoir above the surrounding countryside with a capacity of up to 150 million cubic metres.

This would involve building embankments to a height of between 15 and 25 metres to hold the water. That’s about the height of an eight-storey block of flats and higher than anything else in the Vale. Even Oxford City has a height restriction of less than 20 metres.

The reservoir embankments would enclose about four square miles and be 10.3 miles long. This would be the largest 'walled' reservoir in the world.

The plans would require the redirection of the Hanney–Steventon Road and the reopening of the Drayton exit from the A34.

As the Thames Water technical document states: "Extensive tree and hedge planting will be required to mitigate impacts on views of the embankments, and to integrate the development into the landscape. Embankments and spoil mounding should be designed to avoid an overly engineered appearance."

I’m not sure how long it would take for trees and hedges to obscure a ten-mile long, eight-storey embankment but it must take a number of years.

Also, I know this sounds silly, but plonking a reservoir on low lying land will increase the flood risk. This area acts as a huge sponge when it rains and soaks up water from the surrounding area, thus reducing the risk of surface water flooding.

As the technical report says less than 25 per cent of the site is flood zones 2 and 3. "However there is not enough suitable land available within the overall site boundary to compensate for the flood storage loss."

Action organisation GARD (Group Against Reservoir Development) has battled for years against Thames Water's proposals for an 'Abingdon reservoir'.

They believe that other options are less costly, less damaging to the environment, less disruptive to local communities and more robust against climate change than the reservoir.

They are holding a public meeting in Hanney Memorial Hall on June 12 at 7.30pm so if you want to know more about the plans please go along to this meeting.