We have a message from Tony Deakin, Head of Reservoir Safety, Environment Agency which provides an update on the work arising from Part A of the Toddbrook review. Tony’s message is reproduced below.

“You may recall the actions as a result of Part A of the independent review into the 2019 Toddbrook Reservoir spillway failure by Prof David Balmforth.

At that time I set out a plan to respond to the Part A recommendations as follows:

• Deliverable 1 – Spillway Design Guide
• Deliverable 2 – Spillway Inspection Guide
• Deliverable 3 – Spillway Failure Mechanisms Research
• Deliverable 4 – Guidance on the contents of a well-structured package of information on the reservoir
• Deliverable 5 – Guidance to Inspecting Engineers
• Deliverable 6 - Guidance to Supervising Engineers
• Deliverable 7 – Guidance to Owners

The team which supporting me to deliver this plan:

Kieron Kenny – kieron.kenny@turntown.co.uk

Viktor Pavlov – pavlovvv@binnies.com

Eddie Robinson – robinsoned@binnies.com

Tim Daly – tim.daly@mottmac.com

Many of you have already responded to my initial request and have generously offered your support to develop this guidance, for which I am grateful.  If you did respond and haven’t already been contacted by my team, then you should expect to be contacted in the next few weeks.  If you haven’t responded and would like to be involved, please get in touch with me or one of my team.  It’s important that this guidance is developed collaboratively by a representative cross section of the reservoir community and your support is necessary to achieve this.

Part B of the independent review will consider the legislative and regulatory framework which governs the management of reservoirs in England.  In anticipation of potential changes to legislation as a result of this review, we have adapted our plan and now intend to publish deliverables 4, 5, 6 and 7 as interim guidance, which will respond specifically to the recommendations of the Part A review, pending the future introduction of new or updated legislation.

My team has been busy developing the necessary plans to prepare and publish this guidance in the late summer/early autumn of this year and look forward to engaging with those of you who so generously offer your time.“