Sir, I wonder if anybody else has spotted the logical outcome of a legal battle against Thames Water currently going through the High Court in London should Thames Water win.

Thames Water is seeking to build its “super sewer” beneath the Thames in order to deal with the ever increasingly severe overloading of the capital’s sewer system in times of heavy rain.

For this laudable endeavour, you and I, and everybody else out as far west as Swindon, are expected to pay an additional £80 on our water bills for ever more.

The problem we have in this area (in addition to the bill) is that should Thames Water succeed in this endeavour, they will be throwing away vast quantities of valuable rainwater alongside the sewage. London is critically short of drinking water (it has the UK’s only desalination plant) and alternative plans to separate rainwater for treatment as drinking supplies have not received genuine consideration by Thames Water. Even the former chairman of the committee which endorsed the super-sewer now says it is wrong.

So what happens in the next few decades as London’s population soars by 40 per cent to over 11m? Fortunately for Thames Water, they already have well-developed plans for a reservoir to solve London’s drinking water problems. It’s here in Steventon.

The legal challenge against Thames Water has far-reaching consequences for us. We’ve fought off their plans for a reservoir once before. We need to do all we can to get Thames Water to re-examine their plans for central London now or all that effort will come to nothing.

Lee Upcraft

Wantage Road

Wallingford