Meeting planned over Darwen Reservoir (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Meeting planned over Darwen Reservoir

11:00am Sunday 29th July 2012 in Darwen

A PUBLIC meeting will be held next week about the future of Jacks Key reservoir after the Environment agency appeared to alter plans to have it refilled.
Originally, the agency had proposed a scheme to restore the reservoir to some of its former glory by putting water back into it.
But the Lancashire Telegraph now understands those plans have changed and, although development will take place, it will not involve filling the reservoir.
Whitehall councillor David Foster said he would now have to gauge whether people were still interested in helping out.
He said: “It was publicised as if it was going to have some water there and that is what got people interested.
“I am a bit disappointed those plans appear to have changed.
“The information I got was the if we set up a group, similar to the other friends groups operating in the town, we could get bits of money from a number of sources.
“Now I need to see if those local people would still be interested in this different sort of development.”
A meeting is to be held on Thursday from 7pm at Spring Vale Methodist Church.
Nobody at the Environment Agency was available to comment.
The water from the reservoir was drained several years ago amid concerns the dam in the northern section of the lodge was not strong enough to hold the water, with fears gallons of water would pour into the Spring Vale area and into the town centre.
The owner of the land at Jacks Key went into voluntary liquidation in 2005, and the land now belongs to the crown.
But the Environment Agency has been looking at ways to improve the area alongside flood protection works.
A public meeting was held in May where people in the area were able to look at plans and voice their opinions.