Hollie Fisher: Community engagement and environmental net gains on the UK’s first reservoir in 30 years

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At the GE Sustainability conference, Atkins Réalis principal engineering geologist Hollie Fisher will discuss georesilience strategies and stakeholder engagement on the Havant Thicket Reservoir project. Here, together with Portsmouth Water ecology manager Sinead McCarthy and environmental manager Mark Jessup, she gives a preview of the key themes.

Havant Thicket Reservoir is the first reservoir to be built in the UK in over 30 years and is currently being constructed near Rowlands Castle in Hampshire. This project is a strategic future-focused and sustainable asset that aims to secure reliable drinking water for the water-stressed south east England.

When complete, the 160ha reservoir shall be bounded by a 3km long, 20m high soil embankment; a smaller wetlands embankment and bund will also be constructed, which will support the growth of a wetland nature reserve. Furthermore, a visitors’ centre and accessible walks and bridleways will be installed for the local community.

This project’s conception has been focused on reducing the burden on two under-pressure natural chalk streams (the River Test and River Itchen), which are currently used by neighbouring Southern Water to supply its customers in west Hampshire.

In the 1960s, the reservoir site was specifically chosen by Portsmouth Water due to its abundance of clay in the form of Head deposits, London Clay and Reading Formations. These units will form a watertight base for the reservoir, as well as being the main units to form the reservoir dam itself.

Portsmouth Water and the Havant Thicket Reservoir project want to delivering an environmental net gain for the local area. This involves developing long-term strategies with neighbours of the reservoir, including Forestry England and Hampshire County Council, to create and enhance habitats and ecological connectivity both onsite and offsite. The strategy involves the creation and management of more than 200ha of new wetland, woodland, woodland pasture, grassland and parkland, and the restoration of broadleaved woodland, hedgerows, ponds and watercourses - this includes the planting of 6,000 trees so far.

The development of the strategy followed consultation that demonstrated support for the project (more than 80% agreed/strongly agreed with plans). It included feedback on opportunities to implement environmental measures in advance, during the 10-year construction period and post-construction.

This feedback initially included opposition from a group called “Stop the Chop”, which objected to the removal of woodland on site. You may be asking yourselves: “Why are you bringing this up for a sustainability conference?” However, one of the project’s achievements to date is this: through consultation and engagement via site visits and volunteering events, the action group has become an engaged stakeholder of the project. They have changed their name to “Havant Thicket for Nature”.

Ahead of work starting on site, the group met with the project team and asked if it would be possible to translocate 80 trees from site. Thanks to the care taken during site clearance works, along with the support of volunteers, we have exceeded this target and relocated more than 450 young trees, saplings and plants. This is in addition to growing nearly 200 oak saplings from acorns gathered on site.

Engagement with local stakeholders does not stop with government bodies or opposition groups, it’s important to the project that we also engage with local schools, colleges and universities. These people are our future and teaching them about the technical, environmental and safety aspects of the project, and its importance to the local and regional area, is vital.

The project has a dedicated manager to coordinate school and community centre visits, but it also has volunteers within the project team who are keen to share their knowledge with the local community; this includes geologists, engineers and health and safety managers.

The project has also had on-site visits through the pre-construction and construction phases of works, including a local school coming to undertake replanting. This was a good opportunity to spread awareness of re-forestation and the importance of putting back what we take from the environment.

Portsmouth Water also ran a competition for local children to draw a picture of one of the ducks from our reservoir graphics and give it a name, along with their reason for choosing it. The competition was promoted, along with an education sheet for primary age school pupils on ducks and water resources; there were hundreds of entries and “Hope” the duck was our winner.

In conclusion, Havant Thicket Reservoir is a project that has involved extensive public engagement via dedicated team members and project volunteers, as well as community contributions.

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