Grassholme Reservoir Safety

Hello everyone,

You may recall, from earlier portal updates, that we have shared with you our plans for essential maintenance and improvement work we are doing at Grassholme Reservoir. I also had the pleasure of meeting local customers who attended our event on 29 June 2019. 

We started the latest part of the Project in March this year and we expect this work to be complete by the end of December 2020. However, as we all adapt during these challenging times, we will continue to monitor Government guidance and the timings of our work may change. Be assured that our site teams are adhering to the social distancing guidance and we ask that others maintain a social distance from our people whilst we are on site. In summary, this work is classed as essential and we are following UK Government guidance regarding COVID-19.

To recap, this £12 million scheme will increase the resilience of the reservoir dam and will also involve an upgrade to the leisure facilities available.

We had intended to hold a customer event, with local residents, to share more about this and future work this month. Due to the UK Government imposed instructions to stay home and avoid gatherings, we will not now hold this public event and we trust you will understand the reasons for this change of plan.

With our next phase of work under development and in the absence of a customer event, we would like to offer you the opportunity to understand the works that we must complete. Please refer to the attached visuals that describe the whole of the works.  Our plan involves reshaping of land to bolster the Northern Embankment, adjacent the Carl Beck, of the reservoir which includes the removal and partial relocation of a small area of woodland. It is intended to compensate for this by planting trees within an area double to that impacted upon by our works. Trees that can be relocated to the new planting area will be repositioned to minimise any biodiversity loss.

This work is subject to both an Environmental Impact Assessment and a planning application to Durham County Council. Please get in touch if you have any comments or wish to discuss these works by the 6^th May 2020.*

At the date of this update, Grassholme Reservoir Visitor Centre is closed along with all Northumbrian Water Waterside Parks until further notice, in line with current Government guidance. During the course of our work, vehicle movements and fluctuating water levels will require restrictions of access and walking routes around the visitor centre car park and the Eastern perimeter of the reservoir. These will be clearly signposted, advertised and identified on a plan in our portal. While people are currently prohibited from traveling to do their exercise, it is important that any local residents still walking in the area adhere to our restrictions, which are there for your safety.

Please see the below link for more information regarding fishing and leisure activities. This information, along with the Bulletin about our planned work can be seen in the tab titled 'Customer Update - April 20'.

https://www.watersideparksuk.com/park/grassholme/fishing/

We will do everything we can to limit inconvenience and I would like to thank residents and visitors for their patience while we undertake this essential work. I hope the improvements you see when the work is completed will be some compensation for the temporary restrictions.

We’d really like to hear from you if you have any feedback or questions. You can comment on the portal, telephone our customer contact centre on 0345 717 1100 to speak to a member of our Project Team. You can also follow us on twitter @nwater_care and @NorthumbrianH2O.

* Northumbrian Water and Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners Limited (‘Lichfields’), our planning consultants are registered with the Information Commissioners Office (registration numbers Z4657939 and Z6193122 respectively). Your responses will be analysed by Northumbrian Water and Lichfields. It is not envisaged that any personal data will be supplied by virtue of a response to this consultation, but in the event that any personal data is supplied, it will be disregarded and deleted without undue delay. Responses to this consultation may be made publicly available. Your response may be shared with the following agency involved in the collation and outcome of the data: Durham County Council.