Dear [Forename]

Although we don't currently have a Secretary of State for the Environment, we are likely to by the end of this week so please sign the petition https://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/stopTWreservoir to ask The Secretary of State for the Environment to stop Thames Water’s costly mega-reservoir plans and fix the leaks now so that GARD (Group against the Abingdon Reservoir) can send it to the new Minister.
Please follow the link and sign the petition and get all of your family and friends to do the same. There are now over 1900 signatures from this small area directly affected by the reservoir but we need many more.

I know we said that we wouldn't be sending any more emails out until after the elections but if you have a postal vote, you should have voted by now and if not don't forget to take your ID with you on Thursday.

There are some meetings that you need to know about:

The Town Council will be holding an afternoon information and discussion meeting about Wantage Community Bus at 2pm on Wednesday 3rd July in the Silver Band Hall. This meeting will be repeated at 7.30pm on Wednesday 10th July in the Hanney Room at the Beacon. The meeting will discuss potential routes linking Kingsgrove, the town centre and medical facilities, and areas of Wantage where residents may find it hard to get to the major bus routes. The service will accept bus passes and be wheelchair friendly. Potential customers and those interested in driving or helping can find out more at the meeting.

The Public Meeting about Wantage Hospital which was posponed a couple of weeks ago will now take place on Thursday July 11 from 6pm - 7pm in the Lockinge Room at the Beacon. The meeting will set out the proposed refurbishment design for the hospital and the types of services which will replace the inpatient beds.

Thames Water is in the middle of a 12 week public consultation about the reservoir in which it states that it has a new interim masterplan and design vision. It's not a new plan. It's the same plan it's had for nearly 20 years with the largest possible reservoir built above ground between Hanney, Marcham, Drayton and Steventon. There are no new plans, just new pretty pictures.
In fact, as they admitted to GARD in a Freedom of Information request in late 2023, they have made no progress on moving from a 'concept' design since the report of 2007 - the design in their plan which the 2010 Public Inquiry rejected. GARD has recently commissioned a report on this 'design' by a leading expert on Earth Dams, Professor Chris Binnie, which was very critical of the lack of progress and the sketchiness of the design. WIth such a sketchy design, there would  be large errors in the predicted project cost and duration, and key safety features are completely unspecified. They still haven't done the techincal designs that are necessary to prove that it's feasible.
The remaining Community events are being held on the following dates:

• Friday 5 July, 11am to 5pm, Loyd Lindsay Rooms, Ardington, Wantage 
• Tuesday 9 July, 2pm to 8pm, Didcot Civic Hall, Didcot 
• Monday 15 July, 2pm to 8pm, Milton Hill House, Steventon 
• Thursday 18 July, 2pm to 8pm, Marcham Centre, Marcham 

Those wishing to respond to the consultation are invited to submit their feedback by Wednesday, 28 August 2024. It's important that we do respond to this consultation and we hope that GARD will provide us with some salient bullet points to ensure that we press the "right" buttons.

It's Festival time. We've had the Carnival and Grove Extravaganza so now we have:

Wantage Summer Arts Festival is on this week. Details of events can be found https://www.wantagesummerartsfestival.com/ This is not to be confused with the Wantage Literary Festival which takes place at the end of October https://wantageliteraryfestival.co.uk/

and Wantage Food Festival takes place this Sunday 7 July 10am-3pm in the Market Place. There will be food and music from around the world, but there will also be space for you to take your own picnic and join the fund if you prefer.

Finally, has anyone noticed any work happening on the Leisure Centre yet? We were told in April that contractors have been appointed to install the multi-million pound major energy-saving work at Wantage Leisure Centre. This will involve the installation of insulation, new windows, solar panels, air source heat pumps and external wall insulation. Once completed, the measures are expected to reduce the council’s overall carbon emissions by more than 25 per cent. This work is expected to be completed by March 2025. Along with the energy-saving work taking place at Wantage Leisure Centre, the council also have plans to refurbishment the wet side changing rooms over the next year, adding a further upgrade to the town’s leisure facilities.  Some of this work should be done using developer contributions which were due to expire shortly so we hope that the money gets spent before the time limit runs out!

Thanks for reading.

Best wishes
Julie

Julie Mabberley
Campaign Manager

Wantage and Grove Campaign Group
www.wantageandgrove.org

https://www.facebook.com/groups/wantageandgrovecampaigngroup