Last Friday, the management board met with the Portsmouth Water team responsible for the connecting pipeline(s) between Havant Thicket and Bedhampton Springs, which will be used ultimately by both Portsmouth Water and Southern Water to move water to and from the reservoir.

The current proposed and preferred route takes it right across Hooks Lane Playing fields, and although they are proposing to tunnel large parts of the overall route, they are planning this section as an open cut and back fill between 2 tunnel shafts, which will be used for the adjacent sections of the route at the South West and North East corners of the site.

This route affects both pitches 3 & 4 and a large proportion of Dingley Dell, the trenching and pipe laying work will probably take less than 6 months but the open shafts and compounds around them will be there for up to 18 months – including a temporary access road to the one in Dingley Dell from Hooks Farm Way. The trenching and backfill work will leave the pitches unusable for a much longer period of time, due to re-establishing turf cover and dealing with settlement.

They are expecting to lay the road in 2Q 2025 and move on to the trench section in 3Q.

We are told that tunnelling this portion of the route will add hundreds of thousands of pounds to the cost and Ofwat will be putting the utility companies under pressure to deliver best value for money for the consumer, and have already insisted PWC and SWA collaborate on a common solution, rather than 2 independent ones, as originally planned
Ultimately, utility companies can call on statutory powers to force these types of plans through, and we as a club have no legal entitlement to the pitches. However we will be resisting this particular proposal on the grounds of disruption to our modus operandi and we will be supported by Havant Borough Council (the actual landowners). We will also get support from the RFU and sport England, but in the end it may well come down to accepting the best compromise - if we are going to feel pain, what’s our gain?

For instance, it may work to our advantage if we can accept some temporary loss of pitches but get those pitches reinstated fully with piped drainage and irrigation capability, as is our, and HBCs, long term goal. We would also ask that only one pitch was out of use at any time, which may change their schedule. This may potentially push the pipeline costs back up towards the tunnelling costs level but would result in a lasting benefit to the community.

This scheme is to be published for public consultation on 6th November and will be open for comment until 18th December, It is imperative that we use this opportunity to show just how many of us involved with Havant RFC need to have our voices heard, the one thing that will deter them from bulldozing the scheme through will be any bad publicity that will result.

So, I ask you to be ready to submit comments, and once we have more details on the scheme, we will be communicating further on the right tone that those should take.
I need to add that at present PWC are seemingly prepared to engage with us and listen to our concerns but their ability to change things in our favour needs to be driven by the public reaction to the consultation. I am also now going to be included in a stakeholders group for the project

Watch this space for more updates.
Gordon Brember – Facilities Director, HRFC

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