An innovative approach to reservoir management that placed community voices at the heart of decision-making has won the ICE South West Collaboration Award 2025.
The Gooseum Rhyne Reservoir project near Bristol has been awarded the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) South West 2025 Project Award for Collaboration. An award recognising the team’s exceptional commitment to working closely with the local community and a willingness to rethink its approach based on community feedback, News Cover reports, citing UK government.
A flood scheme capable of holding 10 Olympic pools
The original flood alleviation scheme was constructed in 1982 to protect low-lying Congresbury, which has a long history of flooding. In response, a floodwater storage reservoir was built, capable of holding at least 25,000m³ or 10 Olympic swimming pools of water if needed, until it could be safely released back into the environment.
Due to this reservoir’s storage capacity of more than 25,000m³ of water above natural ground level, it was later registered as a ‘large, raised reservoir’ under the Reservoirs Act 1975. This classification then meant that the embankments were assessed against tough standards for maintenance.
Fears that sports facilities and trees would be lost
When improvement works were required which would have impacted the neighbouring properties, youth club, basketball court and Millennium Green memorial trees, the local community fed back strongly.
Throughout the planning process, Catherine Farrugia, Environment Agency catchment engineer for the project, championed thoughtful stakeholder engagement, building strong relationships with the community and ensuring their views shaped the project’s direction. Through extensive public consultations and drop-in events, the team listened to community priorities and worked collaboratively to explore solutions.
This dialogue inspired an innovative breakthrough: legally ‘deregulating’ the reservoir by reducing its storage capacity while maintaining its flood defence function - an approach that better aligned engineering requirements with community values.
Solution saves £8 million and public amenities
The solution preserved the Millennium Green as a public amenity, maintaining woodland, river access, footpaths, and memorials while improving accessibility. This also saved approximately £8 million and cut the amount of carbon resulting from the work by 98%.
Environment Agency research showed that reducing how much water could be kept in the reservoir wouldn’t impact Congresbury, but would put less stress on the reservoir’s embankments. Construction finished in summer 2024 and the reservoir formally deregulated in January this year.
The ICE judges commended the team’s dedication to community engagement and their ability to adapt plans based on community feedback, recognising this as a fantastic example of how collaboration can unlock innovative solutions to complex challenges.
