In 1995, the Supervising Engineer for the reservoir expressed concern at the volume of water emerging at the outlet, which was thought to be caused by leakage, as it could not be reduced by operating the outlet valve. Croppers agreed to bring the next statutory inspection forward by two years, and assembled documention on the reservoir, which revealed a succession of problems starting soon after its construction. Major issues included raising of the embankment due to settlement in 1852, 1861 and 1926, rebuilding of the bywash in 1864 after it failed, and lowering of the overflow weir by in 1926. The statutory inspection took place in May 1995, which involved CCTV inspection of the culvert after the reservoir had been drained. There were significant problems with the culvert through the upstream bank, and the inspector would not sanction refilling the reservoir. Possible options were breaching the embankment, reducing the volume of water stored to below so that the reservoir was no longer subject to the provisions of the Reservoir Safety Act, or carrying out immediate repairs.