Editing Sylvia Sayer (section)

===Reservoirs===
In the late 1960s and early 1970s she was involved, as DPA chairman, with the disputes over the proposed construction of two new reservoirs on Dartmoor. The largest, which was to supply Plymouth, was known as "Swincombe" after the small [[River Swincombe]] that flows through [[Foxtor Mires]], the proposed site of the reservoir. The proposal was eventually rejected in December 1970 at the Bill's [[committee stage]],<ref>Kelly (2015), pp.293–298.</ref> and a reservoir known as [[Roadford Lake]] was built west of the moor near the village of [[Broadwoodwidger]] instead.

However, the [[Meldon Reservoir]] on the north-west edge of the moor was passed, despite claims that the water would be poisoned by arsenic and lead because of the presence of three disused [[wikt:metalliferous|metalliferous]] mines and their spoil heaps in the area to be flooded. The dam was built in 1972,<ref>Kelly (2015), pp.282–293.</ref> and in that year Sayer wrote a 62-page booklet entitled ''The Meldon Story'' that was published by the DPA.<ref>Hamilton-Leggett (1992), p.84.</ref> After expounding at length all the arguments made against building a dam at Meldon and in favour of an alternative site at Gorhuish, and the responses from the establishment, it ended with this statement:<ref>{{cite book | author= Sylvia Sayer | title=The Meldon Story | publisher=Dartmoor Preservation Association | year=1972 | page=62}}</ref>
{{quote|The effect on the younger generation of the methods of present-day misgovernment is alarming but inevitable. When they utterly despair of a fair hearing or a just decision, they tend to stop talking and reach for the nearest brick. And who can blame them? Certainly we do not. We well know that the provocation to lawlessness often starts in Whitehall.}}