On 19 February as Chair of the Hackington Parish Council, I attended the first meeting of the Broad Oak Stakeholder Advisory Group. This was a closed meeting by invitation only and only one representative per organisation was invited. At the end of this year, SEW are planning to open the consultation to the public when the plans are more developed. Below are key points from the briefing.
1. The reservoir was originally conceived in 1940s; in 1975 SEW purchased the land, a lot of which is in Tyler Hill.
2. SEW are aiming to have a functioning reservoir around mid 2030s.
3. They would like to provide 20% biodiversity gain in line with the CCC’s aspirations.
4. From April to September this year they will start undertaking ground investigations and we will see a lot of machinery, people and activity. This is not construction work and does not signal that the reservoir is being built. These are simply exploratory research activities, such as environmental, archeological, geological, etc. investigations. There will be unavoidable noise due to these activities as there will be a lot of heavy machinery.
5. There will be no fracking!
6. The alignment of Sarre Penn will change – please see the photos below. It will follow the bank of the reservoir.
7. There will be an Amenities and Facilities workshop on 19 March where we will be discussing what we would/would not like to see. One suggestion was water sports. It would be very helpful if you could share your views about it by emailing the newsletter@hackington-pc.gov.uk before 19 March.
Ania Bobrowicz
Chair Hackington Parish Council
