Expert advice for the reservoir planning inquiry

Aim

Funding specialist evidence and legal input to challenge the White Horse Reservoir through detailed objections at the planning stage.

Raising money for a better water future

GARD aims to raise £100,000 to fund the independent legal, hydrology, ecology, and planning expertise needed to scrutinise Thames Water’s proposed White Horse Reservoir through the Development Consent Order process expected in late 2026. Please donate if you can, and share this campaign widely.

The campaign is not simply about opposing a local scheme. It is about ensuring that a major water infrastructure decision affecting England and Wales is based on evidence and delivers a resilient, affordable, practical solution that can demonstrably deliver a better, robust, water future.

Funds will pay for expert evidence and specialist legal input on flooding, safety, environmental impact, cost, deliverability, and alternative water-management options, so decision-makers can assess whether this reservoir is truly the right long-term investment for billpayers and future water security.

Why it's important

GARD challenges the proposed reservoir because it is not yet shown to be the safest, quickest, most resilient, or best-value answer to long-term water needs in the South East. Reservoirs may play an important role in the right places, especially during drought, but each proposal must be judged on its own hydrology, environmental impact, deliverability, and cost–benefit evidence.

The scheme would cause irreversible environmental damage, remove productive farmland, affect wildlife and landscape, increase flood-risk concerns, and expose billpayers to an estimated £7.5 billion cost over 250 years.

This video was compiled by Simon Booker after he spent a day in what he describes as "the natural, arboreal and historical marvels of the proposed reservoir site".

Thames Water had not yet submitted its final plans

Thames Water has not yet presented its final proposed design, nor undertaken the dam break assessment, despite this being noted as a major concern in an independent report commissioned by GARD in 2024, by one of the UK's most experienced and authoritative reservoir engineers: 

"I think it would be unsafe for the Government to make a decision on whether [the proposed] reservoir should be the next major source for the South East before the main trial bank findings are established, the design known, and the dam break assessment completed."Chris Binnie, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Institution of Civil Engineering (ICE), and Fellow and former President of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management: 

But don't we need reservoirs?

Credible alternatives – including leakage reduction, water recycling, regional transfers, demand management, and smaller distributed solutions – should be fully tested before any irreversible commitment is made. Opposing this particular scheme is not opposition to reservoirs in principle; it is asking whether this proposal provides the greatest water security with the least environmental harm, or whether a better mix of solutions would deliver stronger drought resilience.

"The White Horse Reservoir would destroy valuable habitats within the River Ock's Floodplain - identified in Oxfordshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy as having high potential for local nature recovery."

Dr Julian Parfitt FRSA, independent ecologist and Woodland Trust Ancient Tree Verifier

What will GARD do with the funds raised?

GARD’s purpose is to scrutinise the evidence, test whether the proposed reservoir is the right strategic investment, and promote better solutions for future water users across the Thames Water region and the wider England and Wales water system. The group draws on advice from experienced water industry practitioners, and its voluntary, unpaid committee brings technical and professional expertise free from political or vested interests.

We need £100,000 because robust, independent expert evidence is essential to test the planning application properly and to ensure decision-makers weigh the full long-term implications for water security, flooding, ecology, deliverability, cost, and alternatives. 

Flood risk modelling, environmental and biodiversity assessments, planning analysis, and legal representation are costly but decisive. Raising the full amount will allow the proposal to be scrutinised robustly; if less is raised, the evidence available will necessarily be narrower. Any money raised above the amount required for this work will be donated to Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WASP), a charity chosen by GARD members and supporters.

What else you can do to help

• share the campaign/tell your friends, family, colleagues, and wider networks
• sign our petition here
• write to your MP
• stay informed/volunteer - visit the GARD website 
• register to receive updates on the progress of the Thames Water and partners Development Consent Order process for the reservoir - visit the Planning Inspectorate’s website.
  You will then receive a notification when the Planning Inspectorate publishes the Development Consent Order documents, and maximise your chance to register your objections when the time comes.

GARD is an entirely voluntary group, with members giving many hours of their own time because they care deeply about securing the best outcome for water provision – one that is safe, resilient and effective, and represents genuine long-term value for the community and the wider region.

With thanks for your donation and support!

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 12th December 2026 at 12:00pm