I have friends in the Abingdon area and the primary objection, from what they've told me, is that locals objected to a reservoir that would mainly be used to supply London. Little Englanders at their worst.

And that's when parliament should step in and pass it as standalone infrastructure under its own bill.

Yeah but don’t forget all the eminent domain shit that happened in the 70s and destroyed neighbourhoods left and right. The power structure set up to make sure that doesn’t happen again are now impeding important progress.

Thanks I'm going to have to look this up. Sounds interesting.

They don't object to London subsidising their "rural" lifestyle and paying their pensions though. I despise these people.

> Local residents were very worried about the impact of such a large reservoir

Was it the crocodiles or the immigrants in small boats in the reservoir they worried about most?

Snarkiness aside, this is Oxfordshire. One of 'the' most unlikely areas to have been concerned about that as the primary opinion driver.

Reservoirs are nice, aren't they? Nice to look at, swim in, kayak on, walk around etc. Unless your house is going to be flooded, of course.

Agreed! I have a few around me, and to be honest I didn't even realise they were there for a few years until I really started exploring the area on foot. They are lovely.

So I don't know what the objections were about. You can easily ignore them, and just as easily enjoy them. But they are hardly going to "destroy the environment".

That said, they would of course destroy "some" environment. I'm not aware of the specific objections in this case. So I'll leave an open mind until I do.