Llanishen Reservoir

Jonathan Evans Excerpts

Tuesday 6th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Evans (Cardiff North) (Con)]

This is the first occasion on which I have been able to address the House in debate for more than 13 years, following my decade of service as MEP for Wales in the European Parliament. Although this is not therefore a maiden speech as such, I want to begin by mentioning my predecessor, Julie Morgan. I paid full tribute to her service in the Welsh Grand Committee last week, so I will not go into detail again today, but I wish to introduce the debate by highlighting the cross-party agreement in Cardiff on the subject of Llanishen reservoir between me, my Labour predecessor and the hon. Member for Cardiff Central (Jenny Willott), who, because of an impending happy event, cannot be here this evening.

For the past 35 years, the Reservoirs Act 1975 has provided a robust procedure for maintaining the safety of British reservoirs. The law requires that A-class reservoirs must be inspected every 10 years by an independent engineer drawn from a panel compiled by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Independence means not being in the employment of the owner of the reservoir, who is free to select any DEFRA panel engineer. Once such an engineer proposes further action, those measures become mandatory. They are, to use the words of one of the panel engineers who plays a key part in this story, “set as tablets of stone”. They cannot be altered without a new inspection, and a supervising engineer, again drawn from the DEFRA panel, must be appointed by the reservoir owner and given responsibility for carrying them out in accordance with the original recommendations.

If the inspecting engineer makes inappropriate safety recommendations, the reservoir owner can have the issue referred to a referee under section 19 of the 1975 Act. That process was devised to provide strong powers to maintain reservoir safety, with appropriate review powers for the reservoir owner. However, the legislation and its method of enforcement are actually being abused to undermine safety in the case of Llanishen reservoir in Cardiff, which threatens to bring about the destruction of the reservoir itself.

Llanishen reservoir was built between 1884 and 1886 to supply water to the city of Cardiff, but it has not been used for water supply for more than 30 years. For many years the local council has leased the reservoir for sailing training, and the area is widely popular for both walking and fishing. However, the current owners of the reservoir, Western Power Distribution, a subsidiary of a major US energy corporation, PPL—formerly Pennsylvania Power and Light—wants to redevelop the land for more than 300 houses and flats. For the past eight years, that US giant’s subsidiary has put forward multiple planning applications. All have been refused, and PPL has challenged every refusal.

Additionally, the area has been granted multiple protections. It is a designated site of special scientific interest and site of importance for nature conservation, and the reservoir structure itself has been listed by the National Assembly as a structure of special architectural and historic importance, with the active approval and recommendation of the Institution of Civil Engineers. PPL’s subsidiary WPD unsuccessfully challenged each and every one of those designations. However, I want to make it clear that the debate is not about those planning powers, which have been devolved to the National Assembly. I mention the ambitions of PPL’s subsidiary because they form an important background and context to the events that give rise to my debate.

A DEFRA panel engineer, Mr Earp, inspected the reservoir under the Reservoirs Act in 2004 and passed it as safe. That is the last we will hear of Mr Earp. The next statutory inspection was not due to take place until 2014. However, WPD brought forward the next inspection by six years, and decided to appoint a different engineer. In other words, the reservoir owner, having received a report declaring that the reservoir was safe, and not needing to do another for 10 years, decided to have an examination undertaken only four years later.

The engineer who was appointed, Dr Andrew Hughes, suggested that the owners made the decision not because of any risk to safety, but in anticipation of their being successful in any change in use of the reservoir. Dr Hughes was required by law to be independent of WPD. He is employed by a company called Atkins, the multinational civil engineering consultancy, which is active in many countries. He undertook his inspection in 2008 and, to the shock of many, including the local reservoir action group, recommended that a full examination of the pipework at the base of the reservoir be carried out in the interests of safety. Then Dr Hughes then left the scene. Having prepared his report, he has subsequently refused to engage in any debate with third parties about his conclusions, and he considers his role to be closed.

Under the Reservoirs Act, the next step is for a supervising engineer to be appointed by the reservoir owners to carry out Dr Hughes’s recommendations. That engineer has been appointed. He is Mr Owens—again, a DEFRA panel engineer— whose services were apparently offered to the reservoir owners by Atkins, the company whose employee produced the original independent inspection. Mr Owens said:

“Atkins Limited offered Western Power Distribution Ltd my services as one of their Qualified Civil Engineers, to oversee the execution of the mandatory measures in the interests of safety recommended in Dr Hughes Inspection Report dated May 2008. WPD accepted Atkins offer and appointed me accordingly.”

Mr Owens has declared that the reservoir must be fully drained. Given that the reservoir is filled solely by rainfall, if it is drained, it will take a decade to refill it, and major damage may be caused to the integrity of the whole structure in the meantime. The recommendations of the Atkins engineers, Dr Hughes and Mr Owens, have been closely examined and challenged by two other DEFRA panel engineers, Dr Binnie, who has been working for the local residents group, the reservoir action group, to which I pay tribute for all its work in the past eight years, and Mr Alan Warren of Halcrow—a very well known civil engineering company—who was commissioned to advise the Environment Agency.

After a freedom of information request, the Environment Agency recently provided a copy of Mr Warren’s report. I have it here. It was produced in the past month and has come into my hands only in the past fortnight. In it, Mr Warren says:

“The overall objectives of the work are not clear to me and the QCE”—

qualified civil engineer—

“Mr Owens has not clarified the conditions under which he will provide certification.

The wording of the recommendations made by Dr Hughes is such that a complete emptying of the reservoir is not mandatory. The QCE Mr Owens has offered little evidence to support his approach of fully draining the reservoir in preference to others.”

Most importantly, the report states:

“It is apparent that the statutory measures are being addressed in a manner which will create new risks to reservoir safety”.

Let me underline that. According to the Environment Agency’s own adviser, a DEFRA-approved panel engineer, the works that Atkins intends to carry out at Llanishen reservoir create new risks to safety. When such a fundamental disagreement between professionals exists, there ought to be a mechanism for referring it to a professional body for adjudication, but under the legislation, the right to refer to a referee appears to be granted exclusively to the owners of the reservoir. WPD and its US owners unsurprisingly have no interest in such a process.

In the meantime, the Environment Agency, as the enforcement authority under the 1975 Act, is obliged to serve notice on the reservoir owners to insist on the works being undertaken, even though its own DEFRA panel engineer has warned that the works will compromise the safety of the reservoir. I understand from the Environment Agency that despite that, it has drawn the conflicting reports to the attention of DEFRA, which of course retains the power of appointing panel engineers under the Act.

The local newspaper, the South Wales Echo, has run a major campaign urging PPL to intervene. PPL’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, Mr James Miller, is apparently proud of the environmental record of his company and boasts on his website that

“at PPL doing the right thing comes naturally”.

The paper’s readers were urged to write to Mr Miller to urge him to do the right thing. The website also states:

“We have a clear expectation that everyone in the PPL family at all our operations around the world will live up to the company’s expectations for integrity and ethical behaviour”,

but I am afraid that Mr Miller has proved to be less of a Ralph Nader and rather more of a Montgomery Burns. He actually failed to respond to any of the letters of concern sent by local residents and others, and referred each and every one back to WPD in the UK.

In a curious irony, Mr Keith Clarke, the CEO of Atkins, is visiting Cardiff on the 15 July to receive recognition from Cardiff university of his contribution to civil engineering. Mr Clarke is fully aware of the role that his company has been playing in relation to the future of Llanishen reservoir. I challenge him to visit the reservoir, to meet the reservoir action group and locally elected representatives, and to see what is being done by his colleagues in his company’s name.

Robust and valuable laws that have been used to maintain the safety of our reservoirs for a generation are being cynically abused in my city to bring about the opposite effect, and an important historic landmark, recognised as being of national importance, is about to be vandalised.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales (Mr David Jones)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff North (Jonathan Evans) on securing this debate, which is important both for his constituents and, because it concerns Government policy on reservoir safety, for the whole country.

As my hon. Friend will appreciate and as he identified, the case of the Llanishen reservoir is complex, and today is not the first occasion on which the matter has been ventilated on the Floor of the House—as recently as last February, it was referred to by his predecessor, Julie Morgan, in the St David’s day debate. The case of Llanishen reservoir involves consideration not only of reservoir safety, but of protection of the environment, planning law and listed buildings consent. While matters relating to the safety of reservoirs in Wales are devolved, and I know that the Welsh Assembly Government Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing has been monitoring events closely, the Environment Agency is responsible for enforcing matters of reservoir safety in Wales.

The Reservoirs Act 1975, as amended, sets out the safety regime for reservoirs in England, Wales and Scotland. Llanishen reservoir is a large raised reservoir under the terms of the Act, that is to say one designed to hold or capable of holding more than 25,000 cubic metres of water above the natural level of the land. As such, it should—pursuant to section 10 of the Act—be inspected by a qualified inspecting engineer at least every 10 years.

As my hon. Friend said, Llanishen reservoir was last inspected in 2008 and the inspecting engineer made a number of recommendations relevant to its safety. He recommended that a survey of all valves and pipework in the reservoir should be carried out to check their layout and condition. Although he did not specifically require a drain-down of the reservoir, he pointed out that this would be necessary in order for its operator, Western Power, to implement his recommendations. Once such recommendations have been submitted by the engineer, there is a legal obligation on the operator to implement any necessary measures as soon as practicable. In the case of Llanishen, the inspection report specified that these should be done within 12 months.

Western Power did not complete these measures on time so the Environment Agency served an enforcement notice on the company. That notice required the company to complete the outstanding safety measures within an agreed timescale. Western Power elected to draw down the reservoir to carry out a visual inspection of the pipework. It began drawing down the water on 26 February 2010 by siphoning water over the reservoir embankment and into the Nant Fawr stream. The water level within the reservoir has been lowered by approximately 4 metres. The siphoning has now stopped.

Although the Environment Agency has no legal powers to prevent the draw-down from happening, it has written to the company to emphasise that in the agency’s view the company does not necessarily need to drain down Llanishen reservoir in order to carry out the safety inspections identified by the inspecting engineer. However, should the company insist on completing the draw-down, the company needs an environmental permit or discharge consent from the agency to proceed. This document is issued under section 85 of the Water Resources Act 1991 and gives permission to discharge water that may contain silts or sediments—such as in reservoir water— sewage or trade effluents directly into surface waters, rivers, streams, canals, groundwater or the sea. In fulfilling its obligations under this Act, the Environment Agency determines environmental permit applications to regulate the water being discharged in order to protect water quality, the environment and human health.

During its consultation on the application, which was advertised in the South Wales Echo, the agency received a number of comments from the local community, including some from the Llanishen reservoir action group. These comments are being considered as part of the agency’s assessment of the application. If Western Power proves to the agency’s satisfaction that the draw-down will not cause any detrimental effect on the Nant Fawr stream, its wildlife or the local environment, the agency is obliged to issue an environmental permit. However, if granted, the permit will place appropriate conditions on the company to minimise the risk of pollution or damage to the local environment.

The SSSI status conferred upon the Llanishen reservoir embankments by the Countryside Council for Wales in September 2005, which was confirmed in May 2006, will no doubt be an important factor in the agency’s assessment. I understand that Western Power has consulted the Countryside Council on its plans for the reservoir. The listed building status of the dam attached to the reservoir by Cadw is also an important factor to be taken into account, but it is my understanding that no application for listed building consent has been submitted by the company in relation to the drain-down. In any case, consideration of any such application would be a matter for Cardiff city council as the appropriate authority. If at any time the Environment Agency comes to believe that the reservoir has become unsafe or detects any damage or pollution to the environment from the further draw-down proposed by Western Power, proportionate enforcement action will be taken against the company.

I recognise and share my hon. Friend’s concerns over the many issues he has identified in relation to the reservoir at Llanishen. I hope also that I may reassure him of the importance I attach to the debate on matters that are not just of concern to local communities, but which might indeed have wider implications and which I intend to take steps to pursue. I therefore intend to write to the Welsh Assembly Government Minister with responsibility for the environment and sustainability, Jane Davidson, who has devolved responsibilities in this matter, to convey the concerns raised in the House this evening. I intend also to write in a similar vein to Robert Symons, the chief executive of Western Power, to urge that his company engages with interested parties in this matter.

As my hon. Friend has so eloquently pointed out, the Llanishen case has highlighted the fact that, whereas a reservoir operator has a means of challenging a determination by the Environment Agency, current legislation does not provide for reconsideration by an inspecting engineer of his report once it has been submitted to the operator, even if new information or a contrary view is provided from another source. That seems to be an issue that merits further reflection. I therefore intend also write to my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Richard Benyon), the Under-Secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs with responsibility for the natural environment and fisheries, to ask him to consider the scope for addressing this apparent anomaly in the course of the Government’s implementation of section 4 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, which will introduce a risk-based approach to the assessment of reservoir safety, and on which the Government will consult in due course.

[Jonathan Evans]

The reservoir action group and local residents will be very pleased to hear my hon. Friend’s statements from the Dispatch Box. Within his busy schedule, when he is in Cardiff on some convenient occasion, will he take the opportunity to visit the reservoir and meet the interested parties and locally elected representatives, as I challenged Mr Clarke to do during my earlier remarks? Bearing in mind what my hon. Friend has said, there will be people who will wish to take the opportunity to thank him for his interest.