Dear Ms Mottram

You referred my previous letter to Dawn Creighton so I have copied her here. This is not just about customer experience, it’s about making the right kind of investment.

I’m afraid to say that your claim to be ‘open and honest’ is very difficult to believe and residents here continue to be angry and disappointed in our dealings with Northumbrian Water Limited. I believe we have lost all trust in what you say as a result of our experiences over the time you’ve been constructing the reservoir here.

• Obviously the green roof is still a huge disappointment. Dawn sees no point in revisiting it – which may suit you, but it remains something that could be changed. We see many examples of reservoirs with ‘green’ coverings and many are underground in the true sense. This is a cost issue – but given your reported profits of £270m in 2024 you can hardly claim it is unaffordable.

Also obvious is that a green roof would add to biodiversity, which is very important to everyone and should be maximised

• Throughout the project, it was claimed that despite delays, it remained on schedule. The completion date was spring 2025 – the notice board still says that. Now we are told that the ‘historic’ delays have resulted in an eight month delay to completion. Why were we not informed of the ultimate effect of delays as they happened? And can you confirm the new timeframe – it seems very unlikely that this project can be completed in eight months.

• We were recently informed that excavations reached bedrock which has resulted in an even higher building than was planned. Why were we not told earlier? What effect has that on planning permission?

• We were told that the security rating had been reduced so the planned 2.4m fence would be reduced to 1.8m – Dawn confirmed this and said it would be green in colour. There have been numerous meetings and discussions on this subject. However, at our recent public meeting Donna Rawlinson informed us it had to remain at 2.4m and Paul Wood said it had to remain in its original position. Why?

There is a planning application on Sunderland planning portal – application 22/00981/VA4 – Part 1 of 2, which was submitted 05/08/25 outlining the fence at 2.4m – proving that NWL is taking no account of residents’ views.

Residents who had been led to believe it would be possible to make changes and led to believe that they were being listened to, found out that the opposite is the case. They are left feeling that NWL does exactly what you want – that you don’t care what your customers or stakeholders say.

• The meeting was also informed that a grasscrete surface now had to be tarmac. Why? Again affecting the aesthetics of the area. No attempt had been made to explore other alternatives which would offer perhaps a more acceptable solution. Why?

Residents feel that whatever surface is required must have been known from the beginning of the project but we were not informed. More reason to distrust what NWL says.

it is hardly surprising that people are angry and disappointed – I’m sure your team will confirm this. And I must stress, we know it is not their fault personally – this is about NWL’s corporate approach which clearly is not delivering on your promise to be open, honest, listen and change the things you can, for the benefit of your stakeholders.Now we are faced with the issues of backfilling, landscaping and remedial works.

Fence facing Broom Court – a meeting with Donna, Amanda and Sarah Jayne was promised to discuss this but has never been arranged. Why? Residents have no idea what is happening with it and are very unhappy at having to look at this eyesore.

We are now informed there will be 80 vehicles per day using Mount Park Road – a small estate road – and Mount Lane, engaged in backfilling. Why? Mount Park Road is the only access road to the houses so this will badly affect people living there and it is clearly not suitable for heavy traffic.

Mount Lane was used to transport spoil from the site so why can’t this be used again to avoid using Mount Park Road?

You keep telling us that it is up to the Council to remediate Mount Lane – what assurances do we have that there is a budget allocation for this? Given that the completion date for the reservoir has now slipped to extend over winter – what measures will you take to minimise further damage and minimise the extremely poor state of the road for other users – including pedestrians and local drivers?

We are all agreed here that landscaping is of the utmost priority. Its importance to restore some semblance of the countryside setting of our village cannot be overstated. We are being told that you will not plant very mature shrubs and trees. We find this totally unacceptable. Planting mature specimens would be better to achieve something approaching visual amenity in a shorter timescale, as well as improve biodiversity.

You’ll never replace what we have lost – surely it is morally and ethically your responsibility to do whatever you can to help mitigate that loss. We all know that you could plant a scheme that would give the appearance of maturity if you are prepared to bear the cost – believe me, the cost to our community of this project is much greater than yours ever could be and goes far beyond finance.

I cannot stress enough the feeling of disappointment in this community. Surely, it is time to do the rightthing. I’d welcome your response to these questions and in particular would welcome a commitment to a landscape plan that will minimise the impact of the reservoir on the setting of Springwell Village. This will be your legacy.

Our next public meeting is on 22 October. Donna and Paul have promised to bring along visuals on landscaping. This is a chance for you to do something towards repairing your relationship with the local community by showing an effective maturely planted scheme that will make a difference. Not something that will be dwarfed by what it is supposed to be screening. This project is such a huge monstrosity, it can be seen for miles. It is affecting and attracting comment from a much bigger audience than our local community – it is in everyone’s interest to give it the best landscape treatment possible.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Angela Silk

Chair, Springwell Village Residents Association