WaGCG : Wantage and Grove Campaign Group
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This may be the final opportunity to stop the reservoir between Hanney, Marcham, Drayton and Steventon being built. Thames Water is consulting on it's draft Water Resources Management Plan 2024 and comments can be submitted until 21 March 2023. The consultation is available here
As part of the plan Thames Water want to build an above-ground reservoir (like a large flan case) which will be
contained by walls between about 30 metres high with building starting in 2025. It will cover 4
square miles between the A338 and the A34 north of the railway line. The surface of the water is
likely to be covered with solar panels. There will be no space around the reservoir for leisure facilities.
It would hold between 100 million and 150 million cubic metres of water and be capable of providing
600 million litres per day. For details see our
Abingdon Reservoir page.
To see the draft map of the new reservoir see this page from the Thames Water Reservoir - Technical Report.
We have been concerned for sometime that there is no "One Stop Shop" for Sports, Cultural and Community Organisations within OX12 (Wantage, Grove and the surrounding area) and decided that it was about time we did something about it.
We know that there are many organisations missing from this list and so if you have contact details for any of the organisers of other clubs, societies etc, or wish us to add your organisation to the list, please let us know.
Following the cancellation of plans for a new Leisure Centre in Wantage and Grove, the District Council is now working out how to spend more than £6 million of developer contributions on leisure facilities in our area.
In February 2021 the District Council said that they would be issuing a Leisure strategy shortly.
In July 2022 they have issued a 5 page Active Communities Strategy but stated that a Leisure Facilities Strategy wouldn't be started before the end of the year.
There has been talk for almost 20 years about the possibility of re-instating the Station in Grove. We have summarised the issues that need to be resolved for that to happen here.
Wantage Neighbourhood Plan was first drafted in 2014/15, with the help of the Campaign Group but was rejected by a planning inspector in 2016.
The Plan has been modified to amend or remove the policies that were deemed unacceptable. All other policies remain unchanged from the document published in 2016.
Formal consultation closed on 14 July 2022.
Some 7,000 houses are in the pipeline for Wantage, Grove and the surrounding villages. More may soon follow as the new Council is thinking about the plan to 2050.
Government guidelines say that development should be "sustainable". We do not think it is sustainable to put thousands of houses where medical facilities are increasingly inadequate, schools are virtually above capacity, there is little employment in the area, and roads to where there is employment are unsuited to commuting.
We came together to campaign for a better deal for our area. As it says in our Aims:
We are not against any development in Wantage and Grove but:
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