South East Water has submitted its plans to Bracknell Forest Council and Surrey Heath Borough Council for a new £6.5 million water pipeline to help to secure water supplies for existing and future customers.

The company plans to install 5.5kms of strategic water mains in Swinley Forest through to Birch Hill from October 2014.

South East Water Ltd is seeking planning permission for the Swinley Forest Strategic Mains Scheme. The scheme comprises four new pipelines covering a total length of approximately 5.5km as follows:

• Bray to Crowthorne Reservoir Link

• Crowthorne Reservoir to Lower Star Post

• Lower Star Post to Paschal Wood

• Bracknell to Crowthorne Nine Mile Ride

The planning submission states that the scheme will enable South East Water to make best use of the available storage capacity at Crowthorne Service Reservoir, replace a failing asset, improve the transfer capacity within the Bracknell distribution area and ensure the water supply network is efficient and robust, and capable of meeting the future demand for water.

Analysis has identified that by 2015 the Surrey Hills service reservoir will not have sufficient storage available to comply with the stored water policy, putting at risk the continuity of water supply to customers. In addition, planned growth within the Camberley, Farnborough, Bracknell and Wokingham areas means that in the future there will be insufficient service reservoir capacity to meet demand. The utility has identified a pressing need for additional storage capacity for Surrey Hills Reservoir.

In reviewing the capacity of the Surrey Hills Reservoir it was also determined that the storage capacity of Crowthorne reservoir was being under utilised, mainly due to the capacity of the pipelines running into the reservoir and storage of water within the reservoir beyond the limits set by South East Water’s storage policy.

The proposed new pipelines will allow South East Water to make best use of the available capacity at Crowthorne Reservoir and provide an improved link between the Crowthorne and Surrey Hills Service Reservoir. The increase in strategic storage capacity provided by the proposed pipelines will be equivalent to providing a 25,000 litre service reservoir.

South East Water is forecasting that with these improvements in place the system will be able to meet the demand for water up to 2035.

The majority of the pipeline laying will be undertaken using an ‘open cut’ method. Trenchless methods of construction, which were considered early in the scheme development process, have been ruled out, with the exception of two small sections of pipeline.

Once operational, maintenance of the pipeline will be minimal. The planning application states that leaks along the new mains are very unlikely to occur as the pipe work is designed to have high corrosion resistance, which will maintain protection of the pipelines over their design life of approximately 150 years.