GWML Electification

[D1059]

Believe it or not there was a plan some years ago to create a massive reservoir by flooding farmland to the west of Steventon and the railway embankment would have formed one boundary of the reservoir.  The locals for many a mile around were not at all impressed by the idea - what a surprise (NOT).

 

 

 

And the reservoir proposal still hasn't gone away - its just 'on hold'

 

I'd rather have the reservoir than the other schemes that have been proposed for that empty piece of farmland - either a 4 runway airport, twice the size of Heathrow, or a 30000 home 'garden town' - although which of these was just a stalking horse scheme from Thames Water to try and make the reservoir seem palatable is open to question

Edited November 16, 2017 by D1059

[jamie92208]

And the reservoir proposal still hasn't gone away - its just 'on hold'

 

I'd rather have the reservoir than the other schemes that have been proposed for that empty piece of farmland - either a 4 runway airport, twice the size of Heathrow, or a 30000 home 'garden town' - although which of these was just a stalking horse scheme from Thames Water to try and make the reservoir seem palatable is open to question

Better get the mine dug quickly then, no homebuilder would then want the site and with subsidence it couldn't be built on for many a year.

 

Jamie

[Southernman46]

Now if they had used a nice convenient 3rd rail & DC there would have been none of these pesky clearances issues ................

[talisman56]

This bridge was replaced and the approach roads regraded and rebuilt, in less than 3 minutes....

 

 

 

1:06 - did they bury a 2001-style black monolith?

[lmsforever]

It seems every town in the Vale is expereincing rapid house building, Wantage is one that is doubing hope this provides many customers for GWR agree about relocating Steventon it isnt much of a place with few facilities .The reservoir plan I thought is dead and buried as the costs were getting out of control and other sources for water storage are planned ,note the amount of water work being undertaken  in Oxon  and Bucks at the moment causing long tailbacks! 

[The Stationmaster]

And the reservoir proposal still hasn't gone away - its just 'on hold'

 

I'd rather have the reservoir than the other schemes that have been proposed for that empty piece of farmland - either a 4 runway airport, twice the size of Heathrow, or a 30000 home 'garden town' - although which of these was just a stalking horse scheme from Thames Water to try and make the reservoir seem palatable is open to question

 

I'd sooner have the fields and the food that can be grown in them (although some nowadays seem to have been converted to 'recreational use' and are home to horses) and it an awful long time since I cut one of those fields driving a combine harvester (good job it wasn't a year later or I'd have been driving the combine illegally on account of my youth).   Simple answer to Oxford's water needs is to move part of it burgeoning population out to somewhere where there is an adequate supply of water.

[Jonboy]

The issue with that is the reservoir was intended to support London and would have not done anything to Oxfordshire’s issues...

[Ron Ron Ron]

And the reservoir proposal still hasn't gone away - its just 'on hold'

 

 

.....The reservoir plan I thought is dead and buried as the costs were getting out of control and other sources for water storage are planned.....

 

 

Reported in June this year (2017).....

 

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/15330037.Plans_to_build_reservoir_the_size_of_Heathrow_back_on_the_table/

 

 

Earlier, in March this year.....

 

http://www.oxfordshireguardian.co.uk/abingdon-reservoir-plans-could-still-go-ahead-after-10-year-battle/

 

 

 

.

[lmsforever]

Change 'coalfield' to Fracking and you can be assured that the reaction will not be that polite.

 

The attitude of most 'home counties' residents to such activities (who seem more concerned about their precious house prices than anything else) is that such activities should be restricted to 'up north' where 'poor people live'

 

As do any householder in the south !

[APOLLO]

Us "poor people here up north" have billions of gallons of water within our beautiful scenery (and our electric trains run under old bridges !!).

 

 

Brit15 

[Nick Gough]

The issue with that is the reservoir was intended to support London and would have not done anything to Oxfordshire’s issues...

A bit like the GWML since all the Vale stations were closed?

[corneliuslundie]

"Us "poor people here up north" have billions of gallons of water within our beautiful scenery (and our electric trains run under old bridges !!)."

 

Yes, and most of the water goes to England with no recompense for the locals.

Mind you, it could have been worse. I couple of years ago I picked up a little book in a bookshop in Llandrindod Wells. It described a scheme dreamed up by London County Council which would have involved flooding vast areas of what is now Powys and moving the population out of almost all the rest so as to avoid the water being polluted. It was only stopped by a Royal Commission which said they should take water from the Thames instead. So forget about flooding a bit of Oxfordshire. Why not flood Beds, Bucks, Oxon and Berks completely? I'm sure there would be no objections.

Jonathan

[Banger Blue]

The coalfield is actually no joke. The coal measures are an extension of the Warwickshire field and there were serious suggestions about tapping them in the 70's. A guy I know who worked in the industry was involved in some of the initial feasibility studies within the coal board. I have no idea how far south the seams actually run.Jamie

There is a display in Oxford’s Natural History Museum which covers the local geology and part of it is a map / diagram showing the extent of the coal seams. Quite surprising how large it is, with Didcot sitting right on top of it. Quite ironic, seeing as (at the time of my visit) Didcot PS was being supplied with coal imported via Avonmouth.

[black and decker boy]

Trouble brewing in Reading too

 

http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/train-bosses-could-prosecuted-over-13906340

[black and decker boy]

And the reservoir proposal still hasn't gone away - its just 'on hold'

 

I'd rather have the reservoir than the other schemes that have been proposed for that empty piece of farmland - either a 4 runway airport, twice the size of Heathrow, or a 30000 home 'garden town' - although which of these was just a stalking horse scheme from Thames Water to try and make the reservoir seem palatable is open to question

Way more houses than that in planning for Oxon. Didcot getting tens of thousands, Witney/ Eynsham getting 16000+ Plus current major developments around Oxford, Bicester and Banbury.

 

Aylesbury Vale, Wycombe and Bucks in general getting upwards of 50,000 new houses

[D1059]

Way more houses than that in planning for Oxon. Didcot getting tens of thousands, Witney/ Eynsham getting 16000+ Plus current major developments around Oxford, Bicester and Banbury.

 

Aylesbury Vale, Wycombe and Bucks in general getting upwards of 50,000 new houses

 

I know - the latest batch to be announced is Oxfordshire's share of the new houses which will be attached as a requirement for building the new Oxford - Cambridge 'Expressway' - 100000 more. that's like parachuting another Oxford sized city (or more) into the county

[Budgie]

Simple answer to Oxford's water needs is to move part of it burgeoning population out to somewhere where there is an adequate supply of water.

If global warming continues (as is likely considering Trump's recent shenanigans) Oxford will have an adequate supply of water in due course.

[Mike Storey]

I was going to comment that we need not worry about the number of houses needed in the leafy shires, as the likely rate of net immigration is dropping fast, since the referendum. But I thought I better check the latest stats first.

 

However, whilst that is true of EU net migration, it is not true of non-EU migration, which has remained roughly static, since a slight drop when the rules were toughened some years ago. Non-EU net migration has always been, bar one year marginally I think (hard to tell from the large scale graphs the ONS uses), higher than EU net migration, and is, as of May 2017, c. 30% higher than net EU migration. Net migration overall, EU and non-EU caused about 0.5% population increase over the past year.

 

On top of that, net natural population increase (UK resident births over deaths) is pretty stable at around 0.3%, as is the average age (40 yrs old). I had previously thought that natural population change was negative due to a reducing birth rate. Whilst the birth rate continues to decrease marginally (especially for the under-18's) for UK residents, the proportion of deaths per 1,000 population, has also decreased. You would thus expect an ageing population, which was true going back several years, but for whatever reason (within a +/- 2% statistical error) is no longer true. The ONS does not yet attempt to explain it (unlike the less objective Migration Watch folk), but I can only surmise it is maintained by the younger age of immigrants, especially EU ones, whereas non-EU migrants tend to bring aged relatives with them more often (but not, by any means, the majority).

 

So the overall population increase maintains at about 0.8% per year, about the same it has been since 2005. Assuming EU migrants have to follow existing non-EU migrant rules after 2019, 0r 2021 or whatever, and rules do not get tightened further for non-EU migrants, we can assume a forecast net increase in population of at least 0.5% a year for a while yet. Even if migration stopped completely, there would be a 0.2 to 0.3% population increase.

 

So you had better assume those houses will both be needed and will, eventually, get built. Quite who will be able to afford them of course, is another matter. Better not flood the Vale just yet.

[corneliuslundie]

Unlike mid Wales where the population is both dropping and ageing. Now if sheep paid taxes . . .

A frightening statistic from a couple of years ago is that in Germany 35% of people live alone, so over half of all dwellings have only one occupant.

It may not be as bad in the UK but it is the way things are moving.

The young are marrying later, if at all, and having their children later. But what is an increasing problem is that many of the young cannot afford to move out of the parental home. How many young couples, even if they both have good jobs, can afford to buy a house in the Home Counties? It is difficult enough here in mid Wales where you can pick up a terrace house for about £90,000 - but then wages are much lower too.

This is one of the things which creates a housing shortage, though it is rather an artificial one as even if houses are built there is no-one to buy them except the elderly prosperous (like me!).. And the four bedroomed (but poky) houses beloved of house builders are not what is needed.

In fact thank goodness for parents and grandparents (free child minding, unless like us you like three or eight hours from your children)

Jonathan

[The Stationmaster]

Trouble brewing in Reading too

 

http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/train-bosses-could-prosecuted-over-13906340

 

Reading's leading 'grab a headline' Councillor strikes again.

 

Er excuse me Mr Page but what about the double decker 'bus route which you solemnly promised more than 3 years ago would be running along Cow Lane 'in the near future when the bridge and road works are complete'?  

 

And presumably the inhabitants of what housing remains in Cardiff Road are quite happy living in a road with considerable commercial traffic and businesses over much of its length?  All the railway is doing is continuing its business on its land which Cardiff Road backs onto although that business is now stabling trains instead of an engineering depot with road vehicles coming and going (albeit not along Cardiff Road) at all hours of the day & night.

[The Stationmaster]

"Us "poor people here up north" have billions of gallons of water within our beautiful scenery (and our electric trains run under old bridges !!)."

 

Yes, and most of the water goes to England with no recompense for the locals.

Mind you, it could have been worse. I couple of years ago I picked up a little book in a bookshop in Llandrindod Wells. It described a scheme dreamed up by London County Council which would have involved flooding vast areas of what is now Powys and moving the population out of almost all the rest so as to avoid the water being polluted. It was only stopped by a Royal Commission which said they should take water from the Thames instead. So forget about flooding a bit of Oxfordshire. Why not flood Beds, Bucks, Oxon and Berks completely? I'm sure there would be no objections.

Jonathan

Worry not, those of us living in the mid Thames Valley have probably passed a quite respectable percentage of the water that is drunk in London

[jamie92208]

Worry not, those of us living in the mid Thames Valley have probably passed a quite respectable percentage of the water that is drunk in London

I remember being told at school that most water drunk in London has been passed at least 7 times before it gets there.

 

Jamie

[Budgie]

I remember being told at school that most water drunk in London has been passed at least 7 times before it gets there.

Is that why it is healthier to drink beer than water?

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Is that why it is healthier to drink beer than water?

 

Seriously though, in Victorian times it really was. Hence pubs on every street corner in the cities and large industrial towns.

[Ron Ron Ron]

I was going to comment that we need not worry about the number of houses needed in the leafy shires, as the likely rate of net immigration is dropping fast, since the referendum. But I thought I better check the latest stats first.......

 

 

An interesting post Mike.

Last year and earlier this year, I spent time delving into the ONS and other statistics myself.

 

The population growth rate (net migration plus net birth/deaths) have meant that the UK population has been increasing by approximately, just under half a million people a year, over the last couple of years.

With net migration from the EU having reduced more recently, the rate of increase will be reduced, but even with a larger fall in the numbers (EU & non-EU), the total population growth will still mean an extra million people every 3 or 4 years.

So yes, those houses will be needed...and some.

 

The recent talk about the "housing crisis" has lead to calls for vast numbers of new homes to be built.

To tackle the present shortage and address the need over the next couple of years, they are talking about a million new dwellings. But that only covers the present and very short term need, if all these figures are to be believed.

 

To put this into perspective, by 2030 (a little over 12 years time), the equivalent of 1.5 Birminghams* may have to be built to house everybody and the robots won't know what to do with us all.

 

 

( * OK, I'm waiting for the jokes.)

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