Work starts on £1 million scheme at Wistlandpound reservoir

Wistlandpound reservoir

The £1.4 million scheme will include building an auxiliary spillway on the west side of the dam, to increase the existing spillway's capacity. Spillways are designed to release water safely during floods to protect the environment and prevent damage to dams. The new Wistlandpound spillway has been designed to cope with a one in one hundred year flood.

The new spillway will divert flood water into a culvert that eventually discharges into Bratton Stream.

South West Water is working with South West Lakes Trust, which manages public access and leisure at Wistlandpound, the Calvert Trust and the Forestry Commission to ensure that public access to the reservoir is maintained during the work.

However, both the car park on the entrance road and the car park nearest the dam will be closed during construction. The public are asked to use the car park near the Calvert Trust Activity Centre, which will be clearly signposted.

The work will take up to eight months to complete. The picnic area will be reinstated by spring 2012.

Project manager Jenny Thorne said: "This vital scheme will prevent Wistlandpound being damaged by severe floods in the future.

"The work won't affect pedestrian access to the reservoir, so the public will still be able to enjoy this beautiful spot."

Notes to editors

• Wistlandpound is just off the A399 near Barnstaple and is signposted as Wistlandpound Reservoir. It has a capacity of 1,550 megalitres. Water from Wistlandpound is treated at Bratton Fleming and Horedown Water Treatment Works and supplies customers in North Devon, including Ilfracombe and Barnstaple
• South West Water provides water and sewerage services to over 1.6 million people across Devon, Cornwall and parts of Somerset and Dorset.
• South West Water operates over 630 sewage treatment works and 30 water treatment works.
• South West Water maintains 9,221km of public sewers (enough to stretch from England to China) and 15,042km of water mains (enough to stretch from Exeter to Australia).
• South West Water supplies over 350 million litres of water to its customers every day.
• On average, half a billion litres of sewage arrives at South West Water's treatment works every day.

Published: 7 July 2011

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