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Delivering the reservoirs
Construction of the new reservoirs, subject to planning consent, could begin around 2030 and at the earliest, they could start supplying water to homes by the mid to late 2030s.
The volume of water the reservoirs can hold means they are Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) and are treated separately from local authority planning processes.
About Nationally Significant Infrastructure
The government agency responsible for examining NSIPs is the Planning Inspectorate. We will work with them as we prepare our applications and submit it for acceptance. Once accepted by the Planning Inspectorate, a panel of inspectors will be appointed who will then examine the applications before making a recommendation to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) as to whether the project should be granted development consent. It is the Secretary of State that makes the final decision.
You can find out more about this process on the Planning Inspectorate's website.
Help shape our proposals
Local people and stakeholders have an important role to play to help inform how the projects are developed and designed. During this pre-application phase, we will be gathering your feedback to help shape our proposals before we submit the applications to the Planning Inspectorate.
What happens next?
We’re reviewing and considering all the feedback we received during our phase two consultation, alongside developing our proposals further.
This includes developing the design further alongside completing more detailed assessments so we can identify and assess any impacts and opportunities. This work will include developing our thinking around construction, traffic and transport, flood risks and other topics that we know are important to local people.
We’ll also be refining our early plans for transferring water from sources to the reservoir, treating the water and supplying treated water, considering the feedback we received.
People will get another opportunity to have their say on our proposals with at least one more phase of consultation to follow.
Keep up to date
- For the Lincolnshire reservoir, you can keep up to date by visiting the project website here. You can also subscribe to the project e-newsletter here.
- For the Fens reservoir, you can keep up to date by visiting the project website here. You can also subscribe to the project e-newsletter here.